Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0278/02780.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 27KB | 431 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02780}
$Pretitle{246}
$Title{Panama
Chapter 4C.   Political Parties}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Dennis M. Hanratty, Sandra W. Meditz}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{government
political
party
military
panama
parties
opposition
groups
labor
panamanian}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     Panama
Book:        Panama, A Country Study
Author:      Dennis M. Hanratty, Sandra W. Meditz
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 4C.   Political Parties

     Panama inherited the traditional political parties of Colombia--the
Liberal Party and the Conservative Party--which vied against one another from
1903 until the 1920s (see Organizing the New Republic, ch. 1). This proved to
be an unnatural party alignment: the Conservatives had never identified
strongly with the independence movement and were not able to develop a mass
following. The dominant political focus was rather on divisions within the
Liberal Party. In time, the Liberals split into factions clustered around
specific personal leaders who represented competing elite interests. The
emergence of Arnulfo Arias and the Panamenistas provided a major challenge to
the factionalized Liberals. The creation of a military-linked party in the
1950s, the National Patriotic Coalition (Coalicion Patriotico Nacional--CPN),
further reduced the Liberals' strength. Liberals (the PLN) did win the 1960
and 1964 presidential elections, but lost in 1968 to Arnulfo Arias, who was
ousted promptly by the military. In the aftermath of that coup, the military
declared political parties illegal. Despite this edict, the PLN and the PPA
survived the period of direct military rule and other parties, such as the
PDC, actually gained strength during this period.

     The first party to register after political parties were legalized in
late 1978 was the PRD. Designed to unify the political groups and forces that
had supported Torrijos, the PRD, from its inception, was linked closely with
and supported by the military. Proclaiming itself the official supporter and
upholder of Torrijismo, the vaguely populist political ideology of Torrijos,
the PRD included a broad spectrum of ideologies ranging from extreme left to
right of center. The prevailing orientation was left of center. Like the
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
Institucional--PRI) in Mexico, the PRD has managed to co-opt much of the
Panamanian left, thereby limiting and undermining the strength of avowedly
Marxist political parties. Unlike the PRI, however, the PRD has never been
able to separate itself from the military or to gain majority popular support.
At times, the PRD also has claimed a social-democratic orientation, and in
1986 it acquired the status of a "consulting member" in the Socialist
International.

     According to its declaration of principles, in the late 1980s the PRD was
a multi-class, revolutionary, nationalistic, and independent party. Its
structure included organizations for workers, peasants, women, youth,
government employees, and professionals. It consistently had sought, with some
success, to cultivate close ties with organized labor. The PRD had 205,000
registered members in 1986. It won approximately 40 percent of the votes in
the 1980 elections, but gained only 27.4 percent of the vote in 1984, losing
its place as the nation's largest party to the PPA. The PRD did, however, win
thirty-four of the sixty-seven seats in the legislature.

     Because of its inability to muster majority support, the PRD has sought
electoral alliances with other parties. At first it was allied with FRAMPO and
the PdP, the orthodox, pro-Moscow communist party that had earlier supported
Torrijos. The PRD later cut its ties with the PdP and, together with FRAMPO,
joined the PLN, PALA, PP, and PR to form the UNADE coalition, which supported
the 1984 presidential candidacy of Ardito Barletta. FRAMPO won only 0.8
percent of the vote in 1984 and lost its legal status, as did the PP, but the
coalition of the other 4 parties--PRD, PLN, PALA, and PR--remained officially
in place in the late 1980s.

     In the late 1980s, the PLN was only a shadow of its former self. It had
split repeatedly, including a rift in late 1987 when Vice President Esquivel
began criticizing the policies of President Delvalle and was, in turn, ousted
from control of the party by a faction headed by Rodolfo Chiari. Affiliated
with the Liberal International, the party won 4.4 percent of the vote in 1984
and gained 1 seat in the legislature. Its ideology was generally right of
center.

     The PALA was the second largest party in UNADE. PALA won 7.1 percent of
the vote and 7 seats in the legislature in 1984. The party's secretary
general, Ramon Sieiro, is Noriega's brother-in-law. Despite its title, the
party generally has adopted a right-of-center, pro-business position. The
party experienced considerable turmoil in 1987, with founder Carlos Eleta
being ousted as party president. In addition, one of its seven legislators,
Mayin Correa, denounced the government's actions during the June disturbances,
leading, in turn, to efforts to expel her from PALA.

     The PR was a right-of-center party dominated by the aristocratic Delvalle
and Bazan families. In return for joining UNADE, Delvalle was given one of the
vice presidential nominations and became president following the forced
resignation of Ardito Barletta. The party won 5.3 percent of the popular vote
and gained 3 seats in the legislature in the 1984 elections.

     The principal opposition party was the PPA, which won 34.5 percent of the
votes in the 1984 elections, the largest percentage gained by any party. Since
its founding in the 1940s, the Panamenista Party had served as the vehicle for
the ambitions and populist ideas of Arnulfo Arias. After a party split in
1981, the great majority of Panamenistas stayed with Arias and designated
themselves as Arnulfistas, and their party became known as the PPA. The
smaller faction adopted Partido Panamenista (PP) as its name. Strongly
nationalist, the PPA was anticommunist and antimilitary, and advocated a
populist nationalism that would restrict the rights of Antillean blacks and
other immigrant groups.

     Arias turned eighty-six in 1987 and could no longer exercise the
leadership or muster the popular support he enjoyed in the past. He remained
politically active, however, and his party was officially committed to
installing him as president. With fourteen seats, it controlled the largest
opposition bloc in the legislature, but its future, given the age and growing
infirmity of its leader, was highly uncertain.

     In 1984 the PPA had joined with several other parties in the ADO, which
supported the presidential candidacy of Arnulfo Arias. The most important of
these parties was the Christian democratic PDC, which won 7.3 percent of the
1984 vote but secured only 5 seats in the legislature. Its leader, Ricardo
Arias Calderon, was a vice presidential candidate on the Arnulfo Arias ticket
and emerged in 1987 as the most visible spokesman of the political opposition.
The party was an active member of both the Latin American and world
organizations of Christian democratic parties. The party was anticommunist and
was generally located in the center of the political spectrum, advocating
social reforms and civilian control over the military.

     MOLIRENA also joined ADO and won 4.8 percent of the vote and 3 seats in
the legislature in 1984. It was a pro-business coalition of several
center-to-right political movements including dissident factions of the PLN.
Its supporters worked closely with the PDC.

     In addition to the 7 principal parties that won more than 3 percent of
the 1984 vote, thereby gaining representation in the legislature and
maintaining their legal status as registered parties, there were numerous
other, smaller political parties and organizations that lacked this legal
status. They included the Authentic Liberal Party, a dissident Liberal faction
t