The World - News from Sept. 21, 1989

The European Community agreed to suspend high-level contacts with Panama as part of a package of measures against that country’s government. The 12 governments that make up the group said in a joint statement, issued in Brussels, that they seek “the re-establishment of institutional legitimacy and democracy in Panama to be achieved through a genuinely free and guaranteed electoral process.” High-level contacts will be restricted to conveying the governments’ attitudes to Panama, defending human rights and protecting foreign communities, they said. Last May’s elections in Panama were annulled by strongman Manuel A. Noriega after the opposition claimed a sweeping victory.