COMBAT IN PANAMA : Ex-Consul Can Neither Applaud Nor Condemn Action : Southland: Santiago Torrijos says he fears for fellow countrymen who take up arms believing they are defending nation’s honor.

Santiago Torrijos, a former Panamanian consul general in Los Angeles, has every reason to loathe Gen. Manuel A. Noriega and wish for his downfall.

Torrijos’ uncle, Gen. Omar Torrijos, Panama’s previous leader, was killed in a suspicious airplane crash in July, 1981, four years after he signed the Panama Canal Treaties with President Jimmy Carter. Noriega has been suspected of plotting Gen. Torrijos’ death.

And last Aug. 15, when Torrijos flew to Panama City to visit his ailing father, he was taken into custody by secret police who called him an “enemy” of Noriega, blindfolded him and placed him in a dungeon without clothing or food for three days and nights.

But Torrijos, who was later released, says he can neither applaud nor condemn the U.S. military invasion of his homeland.

“We regret this military action had to be taken to establish democracy in Panama,” Torrijos said. “It is regrettable that we have Panamanians and American citizens dying in the streets of Panama at this moment.”

His mixed emotions symbolize the feelings sweeping many of the estimated 15,000 Panamanians in the Los Angeles area--the largest concentration of Panamanians in the United States.

Torrijos, who now owns a consulting business in downtown Los Angeles, served as consul general here until February, 1988, when Noriega closed the Panamanian consulate in Los Angeles after ousting his puppet civilian president, Eric A. Delvalle.

As former consul general, Torrijos said, he has been inundated with telephone calls from Panamanians living in the Southland. “We have had a lot of telephone calls from relatives of people in Panama who want to know what is going on,” Torrijos said. Most said they were concerned about the bombing and sniper fire around residential areas that are close to military installations.

Torrijos said he also fears for patriotic Panamanians who may have taken up arms against U.S. soldiers less in defense of Noriega than in the belief that “they are fighting to defend the honor of their country.”

The local Panamanian community includes 51 people in Van Nuys who are relatives of soldiers involved in the unsuccessful coup attempt against Noriega in October, Torrijos said. Other relatives of these soldiers--many of whom were executed after the coup was put down--have moved to Las Vegas and Miami, he said.

The relatives escaped in the aftermath of the coup and were brought to Miami with the help of Catholic Charities,” Torrijos said.

On Wednesday, Torrijos said, he was able to contact his father and brother, both of whom live in Panama City. “They are all right, thank God,” he said.

Torrijos said that when he was detained in Panama last August after he flew there to visit his father, he was eventually released with help from Maj. Moises Giroldi Vega, the army officer who was summarily shot to death after leading the unsuccessful coup against Noriega on Oct. 3.

“I said, ‘I have done nothing wrong,’ ” recalled Torrijos. “They said, ‘You don’t support Noriega, and that is enough for us.’ ”

While there are no plans to reinstate Torrijos as consul general when peaceful relations resume between the two countries, he said he supports Guillermo Endara, who was elected president of Panama last May in a contest that Noriega refused to honor. Guillermo was sworn in as president on Tuesday at a secret location in Panama, shortly before the U.S. invasion began.

“I hope and pray this will be a reconstruction government so that we can live in peace,” Torrijos said.