Talks to End Panama Crisis Break Down : Mediator Reportedly Flees After Calling for Ouster of Strongman

An industrialist who tried to mediate Panama’s political crisis has fled the country after calling privately for the ouster of military strongman Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, well-informed sources said Sunday.

Gabriel Lewis Galindo, a former ambassador to the United States, flew to Costa Rica on Saturday, telling friends he feared for his safety, after Noriega’s chief of military intelligence phoned to curse him as a traitor.

The collapse of talks between the military and civilians came as strikes and rioting against the government controlled by Noriega entered a second week. At least two protesters have been killed, scores injured and hundreds arrested.

Noisy Protests Urged

A National Civic Crusade of business, professional and student groups is urging Panamanians to stay home from work, wave white handkerchiefs, bang pots and honk car horns until the 49-year-old general, commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces since 1983, steps down. The noise-making continued Sunday.

The civil disobedience campaign, which seeks free elections after nearly two decades of military domination, coalesced last week after longstanding allegations of political murder, drug trafficking and election fraud against Noriega were echoed publicly for the first time by a high-ranking military official, ousted Chief of Staff Roberto Diaz Herrera. Col. Diaz has been granted political asylum by Spain, but travel arrangements for him and his family had not yet been decided.

After a state of emergency failed to stop the protests, Noriega reportedly telephoned Lewis on Thursday and asked him to arrange a “dialogue” to defuse the crisis.

Negotiated Canal Treaties

Lewis, an apolitical businessman who helped negotiate the 1977 Panama Canal treaties during his two-year Washington assignment, held a meeting at his home that day. Noriega sent two colonels and a business supporter, and Lewis brought an opposition leader and three other civilians critical of the regime.

Accounts of the 90-minute meeting came from one of those present and three opposition leaders who spoke later to Lewis.

“Gabriel was not a neutral party,” said the participant, a government critic who asked not to be named. “He was very strong in saying that Noriega was the symbol of everything wrong in Panama and needed to be taken out.”

Two sources quoted Lewis as saying that “a little old lady” he respected thought that Noriega was “the most hated man in Panama” and that civilian President Eric A. Delvalle was “the most discredited” for his image as the strongman’s puppet.

Diaz Dismissed as ‘Lunatic’

The sources said that Col. Alberto Purcell, the assistant chief of staff, and Col. Leonidas Macias, the police chief, angrily defended Noriega and dismissed his accuser, Col. Diaz, as a “lunatic.”

The colonels also reportedly argued that Noriega’s removal might weaken the 20,000-man Defense Forces and lead to trials of other officers, similar to those in Argentina against that country’s former military rulers, on charges of murder and torture.

By all accounts, the colonels promised a direct reply from Noriega but none came. Instead, Col. Bernardo Barrera, the intelligence chief, telephoned Lewis on Friday evening and, according to two sources, said: “Omar Torrijos (the former military strongman) made you rich. Now you are betraying the homeland. You can go to hell!”

Lewis, 57, left home Saturday with most of his immediate family, accompanied to the airport by Costa Rican Ambassador Miguel Yasmuni.

Ambassador, Not Exile

In San Jose, Costa Rica, Lewis told the Spanish news agency EFE that he received death threats and left Panama “not as an exile, but as an ambassador for the Civic Crusade,” seeking the regime’s diplomatic isolation.

“You cannot mediate when one of the parties has a rifle,” the agency quoted him as saying. “When I told the officers there was complete polarization between the people and the armed forces, the dialogue ended.”

Asked about Lewis’ departure, Noriega said there was no reason for it. “When he left he had no problem of any kind,” the general told reporters in the city of David.

In an interview televised Saturday night, Noriega dismissed the disobedience campaign as a plot backed by U.S. conservatives to portray Panama as unstable and block the full U.S. turnover to Panama of Panama Canal operations as scheduled in the year 2000.

‘Where Is the Proof?’

He said a U.S. State Department call for investigation of Col. Diaz’ charges is “nothing more than interference” in Panama’s affairs. “Where is the proof?” he asked.

Ricardo Arias Calderon, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, said the breakoff of talks between Noriega and his critics “has sharpened divisions in the country, making a peaceful solution almost impossible.”

Throughout the weekend, heavily armed troops and riot police known as “Dobermans” patrolled Panama City, attacking demonstrators with tear gas and gunfire, according to residents in rich and poor neighborhoods.

“The Dobermans were shooting at people who were banging pots on their balconies,” said a woman who lives near the tall Libertadores apartment buildings in a working-class district. “The people retreated inside and kept banging. The shooting went on for hours.”

A 32-year-old lawyer involved in the protests died Friday of complications from tear-gas inhalation, the second death in the disorders, Civic Crusade spokesmen said.

Two children were critically injured by police with buckshot pellets, and a 19-year-old nursing student was paralyzed from the waist down by a police bullet in the spine, according to hospital workers. A nurse at the Social Security Hospital here said she treated 15 shooting victims Friday night.

The Roman Catholic archbishop, Marcos A. McGrath, condemned the Defense Forces in a written statement Sunday for “unprovoked beatings” and “humiliating tactics” against arrested dissidents.