2 Camps Try to Sort Out Panama Events

Refugees from the unsuccessful coup in Panama remained in seclusion in Miami Wednesday as the Bush Administration and Panamanian exiles each tried to put together a coherent account of last week’s debacle.

Administration officials, seeking to deflect charges that they helped cause the failure by not providing adequate support for the coup, have been working to portray the coup leaders as disorganized bunglers. The exiles, meanwhile, are “attempting to get themselves together” and “work things out internally before they present their case to the public,” said a congressional source who has been in contact with the Panamanians.

For now, the Panamanians appear to be divided about how much they should blame the failure of their coup on the Administration, which has disappointed them in the past but which remains their chief hope for ever returning home.

Several exile sources have quoted coup survivors as saying that the U.S. government did not provide promised aid for their effort. But another Panamanian source, who has been in close contact with the exiles, insisted that “they don’t blame the United States.” The downfall of the coup was confusion and a “lack of coordination” with U.S. forces, this source said.

Meanwhile, President Bush met Wednesday morning with two senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to smooth relations after his national security adviser and defense secretary complained about congressional “micromanagement” of foreign policy.

The micromanagement charges surfaced Sunday during a television appearance by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney repeated the charge Tuesday in an interview with the Associated Press, complaining that congressional interference during the coup last week created “all kinds of problems” for the Administration.

“The President is the commander in chief. He’s the one who has to manage a crisis. You cannot have every member of Congress involved,” Cheney said.

The comments set off a minor storm in Congress, which Bush sought to quiet by meeting Wednesday with Sens. David L. Boren (D-Okla.) and William S. Cohen (R-Me.), the chairman and senior GOP member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The senators emerged placated. “The meeting had a very good spirit,” Boren said afterward.

Attempts to analyze the failure of the coup continue to be hindered by the welter of conflicting stories about practically every key moment in the drama.

Several sources, for example, have said that after the rebels seized Noriega’s compound, Noriega’s subordinates summoned help while the general remained under detention in his office. But an American military officer with long experience in Panama said that two Panamanians who participated in the coup told him that the rebels actually let Noriega leave after deciding not to turn him over to American officials.

The rebels sent the general home from Panama Defense Forces headquarters with an aide-de-camp and a chauffeur behind the wheel of his blue Mercedes, this source said. Once clear of the compound, Noriega apparently picked up his car phone and ordered his protege, Maj. Fiqui Olechaea , commander of Battalion 2000, the largest combat unit of the Defense Forces, to attack the compound.

The attack led to the death of the coup’s leader, Maj. Moises Giroldi Vega. One source said that Noriega shot Giroldi three times in the chest after the major was beaten by other Panamanian officers, and shot the other coup leader in the head.

The various stories about the coup seem to agree on one key point--that the insurrection was doomed when Battalion 2000 threw in its lot with Noriega rather than the rebels.

The Panamanian exile leader said he was told by Capt. Javier Licona, the most senior officer to survive the coup, that the rebels had been counting on the support of the elite battalion when they seized Noriega’s headquarters in Panama City the morning of Oct. 3.

The exile source offered no explanation of why the battalion, whose participation was apparently central to the rebels’ plans, did not join them. He said that Giroldi “kept his planning close to his chest.” He added that when Giroldi died, “a lot of explanations died with him.”

Times staff writers Melissa Healy and Sara Fritz in Washington and Barry Bearak in Miami and Times researcher Anna Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.