Caught in U.S. Economic Squeeze : Panama’s Poor Suffer as Noriega Hangs On

An economic squeeze on Panama imposed by the United States and foes of Gen. Manuel A. Noriega has begun to cause severe hardship among the poor in Panama City, overwhelming private relief efforts and stimulating calls for faster action to bring down the military strongman.

In squatter neighborhoods of San Miguelito, a township on the capital’s northern outskirts, penniless mothers stood in line Wednesday to await handouts of groceries supplied by the Roman Catholic relief agency Caritas. In several locations, however, Caritas ran out of bags of food before everyone in line had received one.

Entire families gathered at makeshift kitchens set up by Caritas to dine on communal meals of rice and beans.

‘Cannot Satisfy Demands’

“We cannot satisfy the demands of the people,” said Carlos Mejia, a Roman Catholic priest at San Martin de Porras church in San Miguelito. “Each day the situation is more critical.”

Despite the potential for widespread hunger in an already impoverished part of the city, residents of San Miguelito directed their frustration at the continued rule of Noriega, not at the United States or opponents of the Panamanian government.

“This man must go,” said Raquel Arispe, a mother of eight children who lives in the San Miguelito district of Valle de Urraca.

Noriega’s ouster has been the goal of the Civic Crusade, an alliance of business and trade groups that has spearheaded opposition to the general. Crusade leaders have never tried to sway the poor of San Miguelito to their cause.

Anti-U.S. Backlash Feared

U.S. officials have worried that economic pressure on Panama, applied after Noriega was indicted in Florida on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges, eventually might cause an anti-American backlash among the poor.

But for the moment, at least, the main danger of a backlash appears to lie in the chances that a long economic siege will not bring results.

Said Maria de Guevara, 37, a mother of three teen-age daughters: “We are willing to sacrifice to get Noriega out, but we are tired. When will it be over?”

De Guevara, like other Panamanians interviewed Wednesday, wondered whether the United States might invade Panama to get rid of Noriega.

The Panamanian economy has been in a recession since June, when opposition to Noriega set off a series of protest demonstrations and strikes by the Civic Crusade.

The crisis deepened following the ouster of civilian President Eric A. Delvalle, who tried to dismiss Noriega from office about three weeks ago. The Reagan Administration continues to recognize Delvalle as Panama’s legal president, and Delvalle loyalists in Washington have sued successfully in federal court to freeze Panamanian government funds held by U.S. banks.

Commerce Grinds to Halt

The resulting cash shortage here has virtually halted commerce in this country of 2.5 million inhabitants.

On Monday, the Civic Crusade organized a general commercial strike that has shut down most retail and industrial activity in Panama City. Stores on most streets throughout the city are shuttered, and workers have stayed home from almost all factories.

In addition, independent unions of port, electrical, water and telephone workers, as well as teachers, have walked off their jobs to protest the fact that they have not received their full government salaries.

Some striking public employees have organized their own relief efforts. Workers at the port of Balboa, at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, have obtained food donated by wholesale distributors that used the port before it was shut down last week.

While the strikes have caused some hardship among workers employed by private industry and the government, the stoppages are more quickly, if indirectly, driving the marginally employed to desperation.

Seventeen-year-old Luis Rodriguez, an itinerant construction worker, said he has been without a job for two weeks. “The construction companies say they will not start work until the political situation is settled. I do not have a cent saved up,” he declared. Rodriguez was waiting for an open-air meal at a half-finished chapel in San Miguelito.

A sprawling neighborhood of 250,000, San Miguelito is set among a series of rounded hills along the highway from Panama City to the Caribbean port of Colon. Some of its neighborhoods are dominated by neat cement bungalows inhabited by laborers, craftsmen, maids and tailors who are employed fairly steadily. Other districts are populated by squatters who have come to Panama City from the countryside to seek work and who have built tiny wooden shacks on barren land.

The shacks lack running water and electricity. Sewerage drains down open ditches in front of the makeshift homes.

Demands for Aid Increase

As word spread that the Catholic Church is providing food, more and more of San Miguelito’s poor are asking for help. At Caritas headquarters in the nearby El Dorado neighborhood, volunteers packed bags of groceries as soon as new supplies arrived and shipped them out to parishes in San Miguelito immediately.

Almost all the food has been donated either by individuals, groups of employees or private businessmen. The supply is not meeting demand, however.

“Every day, there are more mouths to feed,” Fulvio de la Rivera, a Caritas official, said.

Caritas has not yet called for international help in feeding the poor, De la Rivera said. However, on Wednesday, deposed President Delvalle, who is in hiding, provided a videotape to reporters in which he asked foreign countries to send emergency supplies of food to Panama.

As the commercial strike entered its third day, the Civic Crusade, which is composed of about 200 business and professional organizations, declared it 95% effective.

Some public markets and “mom-and-pop” outlets are open, but vendors say that supplies are dwindling and that prices are going up. For instance, at a large public market on Panama City’s waterfront, the price of plantains has increased by a third in recent days because wholesalers are delivering less and marking up the prices, vendors said. Plantains , eaten fried, are a Panamanian staple.

Owners of grocery stores have cooperated in the general strike but are considering whether to reopen late in the week to allow consumers to refill their cupboards. Many Panama City residents stocked up last weekend before the strike began.

On Tuesday, about 200 Civic Crusade members attended the funeral of Alcibiades Vasquez, a youth who died as a result of wounds he received last week during anti-government protests and street violence.

Friends of Vasquez said plainclothes police agents shot Vasquez in the throat with birdshot. He died a few days later, the fourth fatality at the hands of security forces since June and the first of this year.

Trial Demanded

At the funeral Wednesday, Civic Crusade activist Osvaldo Velasquez held the armed forces under Noriega’s command responsible and demanded trial for the agents involved.

Velasquez waved a white handkerchief that is the symbol of resistance to Noriega and claimed it belonged to the dead youth. “His only weapon was a handkerchief and the cry of liberty and democracy,” Velasquez shouted.

Crusade members in the pews of Cristo Rey church, where the funeral was held, then waved handkerchiefs at foreign television cameras and shouted “ justicia .” The protesters passed up a chance to hold a march on the deserted streets of the city and went home immediately.

The Panamanian government continued to call on its opponents to join talks aimed at ending political unrest. Current civilian President Manuel Solis Palma has offered the possibility of Noriega’s eventual resignation as an incentive to open talks, but foes of the general rejected the offer as a trick.

The government also took note of the handouts of food by Caritas. An afternoon government newspaper accused the organization of “meddling in politics.” The article said Caritas permitted anti-government propagandists to try to recruit followers at the food lines.

Meanwhile, a U.S. diplomat on Wednesday was given 48 hours to leave Panama, the second American ordered out by the Foreign Ministry.

The Panamanian government gave no reason for its decision to oust economics counselor David Miller. It previously had ordered out Terence Kneebone, head of the U.S. Information Service office there, who remains in Panama City.

In Washington, the State Department said Wednesday night that it will ignore the order because the United States considers the government that issued it illegitimate.