Panamanians Wait With Growing Impatience to Start Noriega’s Farewell Party

We Panamanians have been preparing a party for a long time. It will be no surprise. The guest of honor knows about it. For almost 20 years we have been dreaming of the day when we would celebrate the end of a long night of dictatorship. That day now is at hand. So we are making arrangements for Manuel Noriega’s going-away party.

The festivity is a send-off for an undesired guest. In 1968 Panama’s newly elected president was overthrown by a military coup. The new regime, led by Gen. Omar Torrijos, was, unfortunately, quickly recognized and backed by the United States. Panama’s foremost columnist, Guillermo Sanchez Borbon (now in exile in Miami), summed it up in the December issue of Harper’s magazine:

Panama, “once prosperous, stable, democratic, with the narrowest gap between rich and poor of any country in Latin America, with a higher percentage of its budget earmarked for education than any country in the region, is now what Conrad called ‘a place of darkness’--a strife-ridden kleparcy (rule of thieves) in the power of an interesting monster.”

Now much attention is being paid to the general; Americans have just “discovered” what in Panama has been a long-term open secret: that Noriega and many other high-ranking officers were getting rich on arms and drug deals. Just look at how these men live--their mansions, their luxurious cars, their daughters’ opulent weddings confirm the extent of their corruption.

But arms and drugs are not the only reasons Panamanians have opposed the military regime. We have also been fighting for freedom of expression, freedom of the press, for democracy and for free elections. In the 20-year process, many Panamanians have been beaten, jailed, exiled and murdered.

Last June, after the former second-ranking officer made a sensational disclosure, coupled with a confession, about corruption and racketeering in the Defense Forces, Panamanians decided that enough was enough. We had to start planning the party. Panamanians organized under the Civic Crusade, a nonpartisan entity made up of businessmen, civic clubs, professional associations, students, workers and the church, and took to the streets in a series of peaceful demonstrations. Noriega’s response was tear gas, birdshot, arrests and expulsions from the country. Independent and opposition newspapers and radio stations were closed. The remainder were subjected to government censorship.

We almost threw the party after Christmas. On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 9, rumors were rife that Noriega had fled the country. (For Christmas, an underground leaflet that was addressed to Santa asked just one gift for all Panamanians: “Please take Noriega with you!” We thought that our Christmas wish was being granted just a bit late.) By noon the rumors were more assured: The general was in the Dominican Republic. By 3 o’clock in the afternoon people were on the streets celebrating; one of Panama’s main avenues was closed to traffic in a carnival-type festival. But it was a false alarm. In a few hours the Defense Forces’ elite troops arrived to spoil the festivities. People were once more beaten and arrested. The celebration was premature.

Again, last week, we thought that the time had come, when President Eric Arturo Delvalle ordered Noriega to step down. Delvalle is almost universally regarded in Panama as Noriega’s puppet; moving as he did, at the cost of his office, was dramatic evidence that the circle of dissent is widening. We had already been encouraged by the defection of one of Noriega’s closest henchmen, Jose I. Blandon. His revelations about Noriega’s corruption were not surprising; the news was that Blandon was the source of the accusations.

No one knows what it will take to rid Panama of the general. But there is no question that we will end military rule and restore democracy. And we will do it without violence. Now that the United States no longer props up Noriega, things will be simpler.

When will the general’s farewell occur? Next week, next month, maybe even in three months. Good parties, as Noriega and his henchmen know, are costly. But the general will have his party!