NATION, Page 30Panama's Would-Be President Endara must show that his is not a"Made in U.S.A." governmentBy Jill Smolowe/Reported by Ricardo Chavira/Washington and JohnMoody/San Jose
The ceremony was rich with symbolism, but the circumstances
were awkward, to say the least. Shortly after U.S. troops began to
move, a new government was inaugurated with the aim of restoring
democracy in Panama. The swearing-in took place at Fort Clayton,
a U.S. military base, with only a few Panamanians present. After
the new President, Guillermo Endara, and his two Vice Presidents,
Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderon, took their oath of
office, they remained at the base for 36 hours.
Endara's first words to his countrymen on Wednesday were
broadcast not by Panamanian radio, which was still controlled by
Noriega's forces, but by Radio Impacto in Costa Rica, which had
taped him by telephone. On Thursday the new President, under the
protection of American soldiers, left the base for his first speech
to the National Assembly. He pledged to lead "a government of
reconstruction and reconciliation," but by then his fledgling
regime distinctly bore the label "Made in U.S.A."
With that inauspicious start, an unseasoned politician
inherited a nation in the midst of chaos. A 250-lb. labor lawyer
with little political experience before he ran for President in
last May's aborted election, Endara must rebuild a society that was
seriously damaged by U.S. economic sanctions, then savaged by
invasion and ravaged by looters. His support comes mostly from the
white business and professional classes in Panama City; he must win
over the darker-skinned Panamanians of the barrios and the
countryside -- those who felt emboldened and empowered by Noriega's
populist anti-Yanqui tirades.
Endara will have to establish his legitimate claim to the
Panamanian presidency over Francisco Rodriguez, whom Noriega picked
after calling off the election last May. Rodriguez urged
Panamanians to resist the U.S. troops, then disappeared. Endara had
little international support last week, except from the U.S.
Neither the United Nations nor the Organization of American States
would accept his ambassadors.
Most foreign experts agree that Endara, the candidate of an
eight-party anti-Noriega alliance, won the May presidential
election over Carlos Duque. Noriega declared that election null and
void, and in the ensuing violence, Endara, Calderon and Ford were
beaten by the pro-Noriega vigilante groups known as Dignity
Battalions. Endara embarked on a two-week hunger strike to protest
Rodriguez's subsequent appointment. After last October's failed
coup attempt against Noriega, Endara went into hiding. "Nobody
doubts (his) courage," says a senior U.S. official, "but it's a
lot easier to get yourself beaten up than to put a country together
from scratch."
Endara might have an easier time if he were starting from
scratch. His biggest challenge is to obtain the loyalty of the
12,000-strong Panama Defense Forces, a militia created and nurtured
by Noriega and bent on its own survival. As the nation's police
force, the P.D.F. will be essential to maintaining order. But given
the army's continuing loyalty to Noriega and the rampant corruption
within the officer corps, it is a breeding ground for future plots
against any civilian government.
Last week few soldiers responded to an American offer to pay
$150 for each surrendered weapon. Some of those troops may decide
they have little to lose by committing to a protracted guerrilla
fight. Part of Noriega's success stems from his ability to convince
his troops that he alone represents their best interests and that
the P.D.F. would be eviscerated if the opposition ever came to
power. Throughout the presidential campaign and during the October
coup attempt, Endara insisted that he did not want to purge the
armed forces, only Noriega.
At week's end the U.S. announced that Eduardo Herrera Hassan,
a former P.D.F. colonel, would be returning to Panama. He was the
Pentagon's colonel of choice to lead a 1987 coup attempt against
Noriega, an effort that never got off the ground. While Pentagon
brass emphasized that Endara would select his own P.D.F. chief,
they assume that Herrera will get the post.
The Dignity Battalions, which consist of 8,000 or so armed
civilians, are already hampering the new government. Whether by
Noriega's design or their own initiative, the goon squads mounted
a dirty campaign last week, looting stores and firing upon
neighborhoods. Formed last year as civic patrols, the "Dig Bats,"
as they are commonly known, were recruited from those with
lower-class and rural backgrounds similar to Noriega's. They owe
both their weapons and their livelihood to the deposed dictator.
Some of them may also owe Noriega their freedom; by several
accounts, many are convicted criminals who were released from jails
in exchange for signing up.
Every way Endara turns, he faces institutions polluted by
Noriega's influence, from the banks that laundered drug money to
the National Assembly, in which 510 handpicked legislators did the
general's bidding. Noriega leaves behind a legacy of ruthlessness,
amorality and corruption. The Bush Administration is counting on
the long-building revulsion against Noriega and on discontent with
the battered economy to give the Endara government the opportunity
for reform. The release of $400 million in Panamanian funds
impounded in the U.S. will make a good start, and Washington
promises a "major" aid program to help Panama rebuild from the
estimated $1 billion in damage sustained by the economy and
infrastructure as a result of the invasion. But just as George
Bush's military commitment is open-ended, the economic burden could
prove far more costly than anyone has anticipated.
