Panama’s Catholic Bishops Ask Noriega to Quit : Church Reveals Offer to Mediate Talks Between Strongman and His Foes

Bishops at the head of Panama’s Roman Catholic Church disclosed Tuesday that they have asked military strongman Manuel A. Noriega to resign, the first time the church has called directly for him to leave power.

Church leaders, attending the Panamanian Bishops Conference, also announced that Panama City Archbishop Marcos G. McGrath has offered to mediate talks between Gen. Noriega and his opponents in order to end the prolonged political conflict here.

During a news conference, the bishops stopped short of excluding Noriega from the proposed talks and left unclear whether the goal of negotiations would primarily be designed to get him to step down immediately.

Still, the church’s stand on Noriega has long been awaited by foes of the general who have complained that McGrath and the bishops have moved too cautiously in challenging the military leader and his control of Panama’s 1,500-member Defense Forces.

The church has long resisted taking stands that anyone would construe as partisan or political.

A Western diplomat called the request by the church for Noriega to resign a “distinct step forward.”

Noriega, who spoke Tuesday evening to an audience of sympathetic left-wing Latin American and Caribbean politicians, said nothing about the double-barreled church statement.

Wearing a camouflage military uniform, Noriega launched defiant attacks on U.S. policy in Panama. He boasted that the United States has “spent all the money in the world but has not been able to force this people, this commander, this armed forces to their knees.”

The announcements came on the heels of a lightning raid Monday by soldiers and plainclothes government agents on an anti-Noriega press information office in the Marriott Cesar Park Hotel here. The office was run by the Civic Crusade, a business alliance.

Several dozen crusade members and leaders were detained after the raid, and many were beaten by the armed soldiers and plainclothes police. The government released 36 arrested crusade members from jail Tuesday.

Ricardo Arias Calderon, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, told reporters that one arrested crusade leader, Carlos Gonzalez de la Lastra, was being held indefinitely and might face criminal charges.

All 15 journalists working for U.S. news organizations who were detained Monday also were freed by Tuesday morning. Panamanian police released numerous other foreign journalists caught up in the roundup at the hotel as well.

The hotel raid followed the violent breakup by police of an afternoon protest march mounted by foes of Noriega. The Catholic Church had sent observers to the march, but their presence did not deter riot police from using tear gas, birdshot and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.

“We profoundly regret the latest news that has reached us of the repression of a peaceful march and of a press conference,” a statement from the Panamanian bishops said.

The bishops met with Noriega last Thursday and handed him a letter requesting that he “separate himself from his position as soon as possible.” The bishops asked for a response within 24 hours.

No Response From Noriega

Msgr. Oscar Brown, auxiliary bishop of Panama City, told reporters that Noriega had sent no answer to their request. “Because there has been no response, we decided to speak out,” Brown said.

The offer to mediate talks between Noriega and his opponents grew out of meetings held over the weekend in San Jose, Costa Rica, among Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, Spain’s Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and two former Latin American presidents.

Gonzalez has publicly offered Noriega political asylum in Spain, and U.S. officials have hinted that they would not seek to extradite Noriega from Spain if he took refuge there. Noriega is wanted on drug-trafficking charges in the United States.

Civic Crusade leaders have refused to sit down for any negotiations before Noriega is out of power, however.

The raid on the Marriott hotel may well harden the crusade’s stance.

The release of arrested crusade activists as well as of international journalists took place at both a baseball stadium and the Modelo Jail in downtown Panama City.

Domingo Rex, a cameraman for NBC News, paid a $365 fine after being charged with attacking a member of the Defense Forces. A plainclothes police agent broke Rex’s nose during a scuffle at the rear door of the hotel.

Ignacio Medrano, a CBS cameraman, suffered severely bruised ribs as a result of the beatings he received from uniformed soldiers.

(Continuing reports that Dan Williams, a reporter for The Times, was severely beaten in the hotel raid were erroneous. The reporter was struck on the forearm by a Panamanian soldier but sustained no injuries.)

The Panamanian government, in a written statement, said it “regretted” that journalists were treated “brusquely,” but it added that several had brought danger upon themselves by getting in the way of the crusade roundup.

Panama City thus returned to its exceptional quiet Tuesday. There were no demonstrations, and stores and industries in the city remained largely shut by the ninth day of a general commercial strike.