Reagan Revokes Panama’s Anti-Drug Certification

The Reagan Administration and Congress stepped up attacks Tuesday on what one official called the “cloud of corruption” enveloping Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega, but White House and Senate leaders acknowledged that they are considering no new efforts to weaken Noriega’s military regime.

President Reagan, en route to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting in Brussels, revoked U.S. certification of Panama’s cooperation in the international war on narcotics, a much-expected move that opens the door to further economic measures against the Noriega dictatorship.

However, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, noting that Congress last year canceled Panama’s foreign aid and banned its sugar exports, said that no other “immediate action” is planned to punish Noriega for his alliance with drug smugglers.

That response drew some condemnation on Capitol Hill, where a strong critic of the Administration’s narcotics control program, Sen. Alphonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), said Tuesday that he will propose legislation imposing a trade embargo on Panama to punish Noriega.

But D’Amato’s proposal was quickly discounted by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).

An assistant to Lugar reported that the senator believes “it is probably not the appropriate time for sending in gunboats and cutting off trade.” Fitzwater pointed out that trade sanctions “have not been very successful in the past,” but he said that they might be considered later.

Others said that congressional attacks on Noriega likely will be confined for now to resolutions of disapproval, which carry no legal weight.

Look to Internal Opposition

The congressional and White House inaction appeared to reflect continued hopes that internal support for ousted Panamanian President Eric A. Delvalle, now in hiding inside his country, will force Noriega from power.

It also underscored fears that visible U.S. efforts to topple the Noriega regime would unleash an anti-American backlash among Panamanians that would only prolong Noriega’s rule.

U.S. officials have speculated that Panama’s worsening economic state will force the military dictator to relinquish power soon, although both Lugar and a critic of the U.S. policy toward Panama, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), said Tuesday that the general has substantial “staying power.”

The Administration also gave new support to Delvalle’s government-in-hiding, saying that it respects Delvalle’s call Tuesday for Panama’s debtors and its foreign outposts to stop doing business with the Noriega regime.

A lengthy proclamation circulated in Washington by Delvalle’s ambassador to the United States, Juan B. Sosa, warned that any contracts with or payments to Noriega’s government would be judged invalid when and if Delvalle returns to power. Sosa called for debtors and taxpayers to hold their money in escrow until a new government takes control.

Delvalle supporters also retained a Washington lawyer to file suit to freeze Panamanian holdings in the United States, a move that could sap Panama’s economy. Panama uses the U.S. dollar in trade but calls it the balboa.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley called the Delvalle proclamation “a legitimate action of the constitutional government of Panama” that is “their action to take.”

She indicated, however, that existing U.S. government transactions with the Noriega regime, such as fees and other dealings covering the nations’ joint operation of the Panama Canal, will continue despite Delvalle’s plea.

Reagan’s decertification of Panama as a cooperative nation in the drug war came as the State Department released a report calling that nation “the major Latin American center for laundering narcotics profits.”