Strikers Paralyze Ports in Panama Cash Crisis : Riot Police Tear-Gas Protesting Teachers as Discontent Grows Over Inability to Pay Salaries

Dockworkers paralyzed Panama’s two main ports and riot police tear-gassed protesting schoolteachers in this capital Monday as the embattled regime of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega searched for stopgap solutions to the country’s economic and political crisis.

The work stoppage at the ports and the teachers’ demonstration were provoked by the inability of the government to pay the salaries of the affected workers. The situation could worsen today, when other public employees are scheduled to be paid amid strong indications that the government will not be able to come up with the cash.

Under Indictment

Money is short in Panama because U.S. courts and the Reagan Administration have taken steps to deny the Noriega regime access to Panamanian government funds on deposit in American banks and due from other U.S. sources. Noriega is under indictment in American courts for drug trafficking, and the Reagan Administration is trying to push him out of power by squeezing the Panamanian economy, which uses the American dollar as its local medium of exchange.

Internal opposition to Noriega has also built up during the past eight months, and the economic crunch has inflamed the dissidence further.

Noriega has not appeared in public for more than a week. Rumors abound here that he is to leave soon for exile, although there have been no visible signs of a pending exit by the military strongman.

His government, nominally headed by civilian President Manuel Solis Palma, has announced only a few measures to overcome the money shortage. One in the works: a handout of groceries from government supplies as part of salaries due workers this week. The government calls the handouts “dignity bags.”

About 800 unionized workers at the Balboa docks near Panama City gathered in the early morning sun Monday for word from their leaders on whether the government had delivered their pay.

Luis Asprilla, the union president, told them that their money might be forthcoming Wednesday. “You decide. Do we wait or do we paralyze Balboa?” he asked.

“Strike, strike!” the workers in the union parking lot chanted.

Asprilla tried to explain that there was money for wages but that it was not immediately available.

“In any case there is no dough,” one worker shouted, and the cries of “Strike!” began again. Cheers broke out when word reached them that the port at Colon, at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal, had also closed down.

Asprilla, a brawny man in a blue sport shirt, was careful to announce that the stoppage, which he declined to call a strike, was not political in nature. But workers in the crowd murmured that the solution to their problems depended on Noriega’s departure. “Get him out,” whispered one dockworker as reporters passed by on foot.

Although the ports at Colon and at Balboa, on the Pacific side, are at the northern and southern extremes of the Panama Canal, it is unlikely that operations at the waterway itself will be affected.

Besides receiving goods, the docking facilities supply fuel, food and repairs to ships using the canal, but most ships go through the passage without stopping at either port.

In front of the Education Ministry building, teachers expressed open opposition to Noriega--and they paid for their candor by being tear-gassed, which sparked a panicked flight from riot police.

Several hundred teachers gathered at the ministry, located on 28th Street and Arosemena Avenue near the city’s broad waterfront. The teachers, many of them women in high heels, chanted “Justice!” and shouted anti-Noriega slogans at about 50 riot troops. In Panama, the police, the army and all other security services are part of the Defense Forces, commanded by Noriega.

Officials at the Education Ministry said that the teachers will receive pay partly in cash, partly in checks and partly in groceries. The teachers roundly rejected the offer.

“We want cash,” one said. “There is no credibility in the government.”

Tear Gas, Birdshot Fired

After an hour’s wait, the riot police tossed tear-gas canisters at the crowd and fired birdshot into the air.

As the helmeted soldiers charged down a side street in pursuit of the teachers, youths on the rooftops of adjoining tenements threw stones, bricks and bottles down at the troops.

The unrest spread for several miles toward Panama City’s downtown area, and for the first time, protesters burned trash and set up barricades on and near Central Avenue, a busy commercial neighborhood on the edge of several working-class districts.

Stores on Central Avenue have rarely been closed during past demonstrations for fear of government reprisals, but they shut their doors Monday in the face of violence.

The teachers, grouped in the 30,000-member Independent Teachers Assn., have long supported the Civic Crusade, an amalgam of business and professional organizations spearheading opposition to Noriega.

Late Monday, the dockworkers met with leaders representing electrical, railroad, telephone, sewer and cement workers to coordinate work stoppages and slowdowns today.

Other key unions awaiting their paychecks Monday bided their time. Leaders of CONATO, a federation of industrial unions linked to the government, said they would await payment until Wednesday. “The government is arranging for the banks to open,” said Eduardo Rios, a CONATO official. “Then we will get our money.”

Workers in government ministries said they are expecting their salaries today and that there are no plans to strike.

In all, the government employs about 125,000 workers and pays them $30 million every two weeks.

Bank Plan Sought

Bankers told The Times that the government has asked them to produce a formula that would allow local, privately owned banks to open this week. Private banks have been closed for two weeks because they fear a run on dollars that would empty their vaults and draw down the reserves they hold in the United States.

The bankers say they will not open their doors until there is some guarantee that the government will cover checks cashed by the bank on behalf of government employees. Otherwise, the bankers say they will be left holding worthless pieces of paper.

The National Bank of Panama, which normally clears government checks, has also been shut for two weeks.

Besides pressing the bankers to open, the government has been lobbying owners of supermarket chains to accept government checks in payment for groceries. So far, the grocers have refused and are accepting only cash for purchases.

The Panamanian government has yet to issue a detailed program to deal with the economic crisis. Instead, it has released piecemeal statements urging, among other things, that government ministries reduce their use of electricity and that consumers pay their phone and electric bills early.

The Ministry of Agricultural Development prepared the “dignity bags” over the weekend, with plans to disburse them to public workers this week. According to government employees, the $15 worth of groceries contained in each bag will be deducted from paychecks whenever they are issued.

The government is showing rising irritation at reports about Panama that are being published abroad.

Government newspapers and radio and television stations have launched a propaganda campaign against foreign reporters in Panama. The government-owned newspaper Critica called the foreign reporters, cameramen and photographers “vultures” who are, “in reality, agents of the destabilizing plans of the traitors among their American masters.” Critica called on the government to “exercise the powers available under the law” to deal with the reporters. The newspaper did not elaborate on what exactly the government should do.

Last Friday, soldiers tear-gassed reporters covering a small demonstration in the city’s financial district. On Sunday, plainclothes government agents beat up a television cameraman and took his equipment.

Although the pressure is building on Noriega, no one here seems to be sure when or if he will leave. U.S. diplomats report that civilian politicians supporting Noriega have put out feelers aimed at getting some sort of negotiations under way. However, the diplomats say they are unsure whether any of the politicians speak for Noriega.

Also, the Americans say, the United States is unwilling to enter into any negotiations unless they are sure that Noriega plans to step down immediately.

Noriega was indicted last month in Florida by two federal grand juries on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. U.S. officials insist that the charges will not be dropped in return for Noriega’s stepping down. They have hinted, however, that the United States might not seek extradition if Noriega takes up refuge in some foreign country.

Spain has offered Noriega asylum, but he has yet to ask for refuge, officials of the Spanish Embassy here said.