Tilting at Panama

Ronald Reagan’s offhand remark that the United States should consider refusing to give up control of the Panama Canal if Gen. Manuel A. Noriega remains in power a decade from now could play right into Noriega’s hands. It should be corrected at once by President Bush, who must make it clear that this country still intends to abide by the canal treaties.

With Reagan’s term in office at an end, there is nothing more that he can do to help the Panamanian people rid themselves of Noriega, the country’s military commander and political strongman. Reagan acknowledged that in the same interview in which he made the unfortunate remark about the canal, which is due to come under full Panamanian control on the first day of the year 2000. Reagan’s words are likely to be used by Noriega to enhance the image that he is trying to build--that of the Panamanian nationalist standing up to gringo pressure. Reagan seems to have forgotten that the canal treaties were approved by the Senate and are thus the law of the land, not to be discarded at the whim of some future President.

It has been a year since federal grand juries in Florida indicted Noriega for links to drug traffickers. In that time the outgoing Administration has applied a great deal of diplomatic and economic pressure against Panama, aimed at persuading Noriega to give up power. But while the campaign has severely hurt Panama’s economy, it has had little effect on Noriega. He still commands the loyalty of the country’s defense forces, which were always his base of power, and the nearly unanimous civilian opposition to his regime is weak and demoralized.

While the U.S. policy of pressuring Noriega had significant popular support inside Panama at one time, analysts fear that it may begin to backfire if it is not changed soon. The people suffering most from the economic pressure that Washington has put on Panama are businessmen and the middle class, previously among the most pro-American citizens of that country. A recent study of the nation’s economy found that the sectors hardest hit by U.S. economic sanctions--construction, retailing and tourism--also provide most of the nation’s jobs and services. Thus many Panamanian workers are also feeling the pinch more than Noriega and his military backers are. And there is growing fear among international financial experts that permanent damage is being done to the Panamanian economy, formerly one of the more robust on the Central American isthmus.

Clearly the United States should continue to express its disapproval of Noriega and all that he represents. But the incoming Bush Administration should reassess the hard-line stance that Reagan took against Noriega to see if it can come up with a strategy that is more effective. While the current policy was undertaken for good reasons, it is now necessary to cancel the economic sanctions that were imposed on Panama, lest they do permanent harm to the many innocent people caught up in the test of wills between Panama’s brutish strongman and his powerful neighbor.