Panama’s Ex-Foreign Minister Sent to U.S. to Ease Tensions

Panama has sent former Foreign Minister Aquilino Boyd to Washington as a special ambassador in an attempt to ease the tensions that have brought the Reagan Administration close to confrontation with Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, Panama’s military strongman.

Boyd’s arrival over the weekend came as a surprise to State Department officials, who said Sunday that they did not know he was here.

However, Adolfo Arrocha, acting head of the Panamanian Embassy, said Boyd--also a former ambassador to the United States and the United Nations--will begin to contact U.S. officials today in an effort to explain the government’s position in the pro- and anti-Noriega demonstrations that have wracked Panama since June 9.

In particular, Arrocha said, Boyd will seek to counter the anti-Noriega campaign being conducted here by Gabriel Lewis Galindo, another former ambassador.

Lewis, who fled Panama June on 13 after he trying unsuccessfully to mediate between Noriega and anti-government dissidents, has been telling Washington officials that peace in Panama depends on replacing Noriega. As commander of the 20,000-member Panama Defense Forces, Noriega is the political power behind civilian President Eric A. Delvalle.

Partly in response to Lewis’ arguments, the Senate adopted a resolution on June 26 calling for Noriega’s suspension, pending impartial investigation of charges that he was involved in electoral fraud and the murder of a political critic.

Boyd is a member of one of the “five families” that controlled Panama’s political and economic life until the military seized power in 1968. These families have continued to exert considerable influence.