Harassment of Americans in Panama Reported

Americans in Panama are reporting an increase in harassment by local officials, but there is no indication the incidents are being orchestrated by Panama’s strongman, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, U.S. sources said Sunday.

Cynthia Farrell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Panama City, characterized the reports as “not attacks, but harassment.”

She also said she did not know whether U.S. personnel are “simply reporting more cases or whether they are actually being bothered more.”

An official reached by telephone at the U.S. Southern Command in Panama, who spoke on condition he not be identified, denied a New York Times report that there has been an increasing number of attacks on U.S. servicemen recently.

“What’s going on these days has been going on for months--going way back to last year,” the official said. “If there was an increase, it probably came in January, February, March and April, not in the last month or two.

Demands for Bribes

“One of the things that’s happening is that a lot of people are being asked for bribes when they’re stopped for traffic violations, and that’s probably because the police aren’t getting paid regularly,” the Southern Command official said. “But if a case like that is reported, it goes down as harassment.”

The New York Times on Sunday quoted U.S. Southern Command, State and Defense department officials as reporting an increasing number of beatings, abductions, rape and extortion of U.S. military personnel and their dependents recently.

The story, under a Washington dateline, said the U.S. officials view the incidents as a campaign by the Noriega regime to pressure the United States to lift economic sanctions against Panama.

Another Southern Command official reached by telephone from Costa Rica said there has been an increase in harassment, not attacks, but said the cause was unknown.

“We don’t know the intentions of the PDF (Panama Defense Forces), but I think you have to look at it in the context of the general situation in the country. PDF members have been notably less courteous in dealing with our people, but that could be just an indication of individual frustration and anger,” this official said.

The U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting Noriega, who is under indictment by two federal grand juries in Florida on narcotics trafficking charges, were applied last March, after the general ousted President Eric A. Delvalle.

Delvalle has since been in hiding, but the United States continues to recognize him as Panama’s legitimate president.

About 12,000 U.S. servicemen are stationed in Panama by treaty to protect the Panama Canal. They are attached to the Southern Command, which is in charge of all U.S. military operations south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first Southern Command official reached by the Associated Press acknowledged several specific incidents reported by the New York Times, including a case in June in which an enlisted man and his wife were assaulted at gunpoint by a man described as a Panamanian military officer.