U.S. Condemns Panama Riot, Closes Offices

The United States, angrily reacting to a violent demonstration by thousands of people at the U.S. Embassy in Panama City a day earlier, Wednesday announced the closing of consular and U.S. Information Agency offices there.

“The government of Panama clearly and purposely violated its obligation under international law to protect the U.S. mission and its personnel,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman declared.

The unusually strong statement charged that Panama’s military government had lifted the state of emergency imposed to stifle widespread political protest last month “not for the purpose of restoring civil liberties to Panamanian citizens, but primarily in order to orchestrate a demonstration against the U.S. Embassy.”

It accused government ministers and Romulo Escobar Betancur, president of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party, of leading that demonstration, calling the officials’ participation “totally unacceptable.”

Panama has been in political turmoil since a retired National Guard officer last month charged military strongman Manuel A. Noriega with complicity in the 1981 plane crash death of his predecessor, Gen. Omar Torrijos. Noriega was also accused of the murder of a popular civilian politician, large-scale corruption and the fixing of the 1984 presidential election.

The dispute escalated to an international level as the United States publicly expressed hope for a return to democracy and civil rights in Panama.

On Monday, Panamanian Foreign Minister Jorge Abadia Arias said he had sent a protest note to Secretary of State George P. Shultz over previous U.S. statements about Panama’s internal affairs. That evening, the Panamanian legislature urged the nation’s executive branch to declare U.S. Ambassador Arthur Davis persona non grata . Such action has not yet been taken.

No embassy staff members were hurt in the demonstration Tuesday, but Redman said the attack by a rock-throwing mob of about 5,000 caused substantial property damage.

‘Same Protection’

“Panamanian security forces have protected the U.S. Embassy in the past,” Redman said, “and we fully expected that the same protection would be rendered during yesterday’s demonstration.”

However, police protection was withdrawn a short time before the crowds reached the embassy, indicating that a high-level decision had been made not to protect the diplomatic mission.

The embassy’s consular section and the information service library in Panama City will remain closed until Panama gives guarantees of protection, Redman said.

Adolfo Arrocha, Panamanian charge d’affaires in Washington, was summoned to the State Department by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Walker on Wednesday evening to receive the American protest. Arrocha, in a telephone interview, disputed many of Redman’s charges.

‘We Are Not Savages’

He said that Panama regrets the incident, but he rejected the U.S. allegation that the government “orchestrated” the demonstration. “We are not savages,” he said. “We have political parties and politically active people. They wanted to show solidarity with the foreign minister.”

Arrocha said that between 15,000 and 20,000 people attended an all-party rally called to denounce U.S. intervention in Panama’s internal affairs, a charge stemming from a U.S. Senate resolution last Friday assailing the Noriega government and the country’s lack of an independent judiciary.

“The last speaker was a Communist,” Arrocha said, “and he called for the crowd to go over to the embassy, but only 3,000 or 4,000 went.”

The diplomat said that police officers had not been withdrawn from the embassy, but that “only three or four are usually stationed there, and what could they do against 3,000 or 4,000?” He called the U.S. statement “unusually provocative” and suggested that there will be a sharp Panamanian reply.

Issue of the Canal

Noriega said the protest at the embassy was actually the work of U.S. agents trying to block the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control under the treaty of the late 1970s.

When asked if the attack would have any effect on the U.S. commitment to turn over the canal by 1999, Redman replied that the two subjects are not related. He said earlier this week that the United States has been committed through two Administrations and both major political parties to carry out the pact, a reference to both the Reagan Administration and that of former President Jimmy Carter, who negotiated the treaty.

Meanwhile, anti-government protesters returned Wednesday to the streets of Panama City to call for Noriega’s ouster, Reuters news agency reported.

The protests, involving mostly students, were the first since the state of emergency--lifted Tuesday--was imposed June 11 to quell rioting.

March Thwarted

A group of about 3,000 university and high school students attempted to march on the presidential palace, guarded by troops in combat gear.

Seven blocks from the palace, however, the slogan-chanting demonstrators fled when a small group of men in civilian clothes fired at them, using handguns and tear-gas grenades, witnesses said.

About an hour later, a group of about 500 students, throwing rocks, attacked the headquarters of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, a leading member of Panama’s military-backed coalition government.

Early Wednesday, the headquarters of the opposition Christian Democratic Party was stormed by a mob of government supporters, the party’s secretary general, Ivan Romero, told Reuters.

Personal Danger Cited

“They ransacked the whole place,” Romero said, adding that he and party President Ricardo Arias Calderon were attacked in their jeep by a group of 35 to 40 men about two blocks from the party headquarters.

Two of the attackers brandished submachine guns while others used rocks and metal pipes to smash up the jeep, Romero said.

Arias was hospitalized with apparent glass fragments in one eye, and a third passenger suffered minor cuts and bruises, Romero said.