Panama Government

The Bush Administration will send a delegation of senior officials to Panama City next week to assess Panama's reconstruction needs and to demonstrate Washington's support for the new president, Guillermo Endara, U.S. officials said Friday. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the group will be led by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger and Deputy Treasury Secretary John Robson. The visit will begin Wednesday, Fitzwater said.

Jorge Serrano, the onetime president of Guatemala, today rules over a 125-acre country club outside Panama City, commanding an army of gardeners and dishwashers. In the capital, other failed ex-Latin American leaders try their luck at the casinos, or jog along the seaside Avenida Balboa. For decades, Panama has granted asylum to ousted strongmen, from Serrano to the shah of Iran.

The beleaguered government of Panama, faced with persistent street protests, late Tuesday night banned all forms of public demonstrations. The move came as a surprise because the government had scheduled a rally of its own supporters for Thursday. Government officials said they expected 275,000 backers to fill a plaza here and cheer on military strongman Gen. Manuel A. Noriega as he delivered a speech from a giant stage especially set up for the occasion.

It is fitting that Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru's fallen spy chief, has taken refuge in Panama. After all, Panama is known as a haven for fugitive generals and disgraced dictators. It is also the homeland of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, the former strongman whom Montesinos has come to resemble in his current plight. Like Noriega, Montesinos used his intelligence service to gain power and a close relationship with U.S. security forces, despite accusations of corruption and brutality.

Shaken by the lawlessness and chaos still plaguing Panama more than two days after Wednesday's U.S. invasion, Bush Administration officials have mounted a hurried but massive effort to help organize and put in place a government for that nation's new president, Guillermo Endara. Although concerned that too much U.S.

Ever since the late Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Panama's last honestly elected president, was deposed by the old National Guard in October, 1968, civilian government in that country has functioned as a facade for military rule. A so-called National Assembly of Representatives, a body of 510 elected community delegates, drafted a new constitution in 1972 and named a civilian to be president. But it gave dictatorial powers to Gen.

Although it is still regarded with skepticism by many nations, the newly installed government of Panamanian President Guillermo Endara has fielded a diplomatic corps that is winning acceptance in Washington and among multinational organizations. So far, Endara's government has established official relations with the United States and 16 other nations, with Japan joining the group Friday.

The Panamanian government turned off the electricity at homes of U.S. Embassy employees Sunday, leaving the diplomats in the dark and wondering whether to pay their light bills and break President Reagan's dollar embargo against Panama. The move to cut the lights had been expected, embassy spokesman Terrence Kneebone said, because the United States is about two months behind in paying the electrical bills of its employees to the government of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega.

Government officials on Friday demanded to know why tear gas was fired, and in such large quantities, to disperse anti-American demonstrators who disrupted a planned speech by President Bush on Thursday. Vice President Guillermo (Billy) Ford was among the Panamanian officials asking for an investigation. He told a news conference he was not yet blaming police, "but this deserves a major investigation."

Launching an economic war of attrition against military strongman Manuel A. Noriega, Panama's ousted president won legal control of one of his government's U.S. bank accounts Wednesday, and the Reagan Administration moved to put rent payments for the Panama Canal in escrow. The joint action by the State Department and deposed President Eric A.

Panamanian leaders allowed Peru's ousted spy chief to enter the country temporarily after being told Peru's military was on the verge of launching a coup if he was turned away, the foreign minister said Monday. "Information we received from various presidents and foreign ministers [from Latin America] was that if Panama didn't accede, there would be a military coup Sunday in Peru," Jose Miguel Aleman told a news conference.

The United States turned over control Friday of the Panama Canal to this Central American nation, withdrawing from a relationship that symbolized the best and the worst of the U.S. role in Latin America during the 20th century. "The canal is ours," Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso exclaimed, minutes before hoisting her nation's flag over the canal administration building.

Voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to allow Panama's presidents to seek reelection, in what observers said was a stinging defeat for the incumbent, Ernesto Perez Balladares. With 82% of the ballots counted, 62.5% were against lifting the constitutional prohibition on consecutive terms for presidents. The vote was seen as a rejection of the free-market reforms of Perez Balladares and his ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD.

At best, the struggle is between continuity in a time of crisis and the democratic tradition of handing over the reins of government to a successor. At worst, it's about lust for power and jealousy. By Sunday, Panamanians must sort the lofty ideals from the personal ambitions to decide in a referendum whether their presidents--particularly their current president, Ernesto Perez Balladares--can run for reelection.

Gustavo Gorriti is the kind of editor who irritates people. Presidents, cabinet members, even some other journalists find the barrel-chested, gray-bearded Peruvian too aggressive and outspoken. A year after President Alberto Fujimori forced him out of his own South American nation, he has already worn out his welcome in some quarters of Panama, where he is investigative editor at the venerable daily La Prensa.

The Panamanian government said Wednesday that it had uncovered a plot by police and former military officers to assassinate President Ernesto Perez Balladares and his two vice presidents and to seize control of the country. Interior Minister Raul Montenegro said intelligence officials had been following the plot for some time and learned the assassinations were to take place Friday, when Perez Balladares is scheduled to travel to his hometown of Boquete to inaugurate a flower festival.

Panama's new government reopened its embassy to the United States on Friday as Carlos Rodriguez, who had been an exile living in Miami, received the silver keys to the building from the previous ambassador, Juan Sosa. Rodriguez, named ambassador by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, entered the embassy after meeting with President Bush and assuring him that his countrymen feel "liberated" by the U.S. invasion of Panama and the overthrow of dictator Manuel A. Noriega.

Troops under the command of military strongman Manuel A. Noriega on Saturday raided two mills and expropriated flour that had been destined for the poor under a program sponsored by a Roman Catholic relief agency. The government had announced late Friday that it was going to take over the mills and buy the flour to make "bread for the people." The owners of the mills responded Saturday by giving the flour to Caritas, the Catholic relief agency.

In his last year in power, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega repeatedly appeared to accept a hard-fought deal, brokered with U.S. officials and Panamanian politicians. He would step down, civilians would be allowed to return to government, this nation's long military regime would end. But each time his adversaries thought a deal had been struck, Noriega found a way to renege. Three months after the last talks broke down, as Noriega continued to cling to power, U.S.

The Clinton Administration struggled Thursday to salvage its latest Haiti policy, thrown into disarray by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara's abrupt cancellation of an agreement to accept up to 10,000 refugees picked up at sea. Endara's decision, announced at a Panama City news conference, came less than 24 hours before the U.S. government had planned to open a Panama camp with the first 500 Haitians transferred from temporary quarters at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.