A Troubled Panama One Year After

Panamanians are ambivalent about the U.S. invasion of their country one year ago. They couldn’t even agree whether to mark the anniversary as a holiday or day of mourning. So President Guillermo Endara proclaimed a National Day of Reflection.

There’s no doubt Panama is better off without Gen. Manuel Noriega, who ran the country as a criminal fiefdom. But it’s hard to find many Panamanians with anything nice to say about their liberators.

It’s not that too many U.S. troops remain in Panama. The 15,000-person invasion force is gone. The 10,000 U.S. troops still in-country are there primarily to protect the Panama Canal. And no one is seriously suggesting the United States renege on treaties to hand the canal over to Panama at the end of 1999.

A major problem is that many people in Panama who suffered injuries or losses in the invasion have yet to be compensated. Panamanian government officials say 596 of the 1,243 families whose homes were destroyed are still in refugee shelters. Bureaucratic hold-ups have also delayed a $461-million recovery-aid package voted by Congress for Panama. Less than one-fourth of that money has actually been handed out.

Then there is the continuing uneasiness of Endara’s relationship with the national police force U.S. advisers trained to replace Noriega’s military. It was sadly revealing two weeks ago that when a small rebellion broke out among a few police units, Endara called on U.S. troops to quell the disturbance. That may be why a plan to end joint patrolling by U.S. and Panamanian soldiers this month has been put off until next year.

Then there is Panama’s economy, which was weakened even before the invasion by two years of U.S. sanctions against Noriega. It still hasn’t recovered, and high unemployment feeds the resentment and unease Panamanians feel. Some businessmen want to return to the free-wheeling days before sanctions were imposed, when Panama’s lax banking laws made the country a popular tax-haven, but also a center for money-laundering and other dubious financial activities. That would boost the economy, but it could also stimulate new criminal activities of the sort U.S. troops went into Panama to stop. The United States is saying no way.

So, a year after Operation Just Cause, the results are decidedly mixed, which is no surprise. Whenever military might resolves a political problem, it may be satisfying in the short term, but the long-term results are usually as problematic as ever. That’s a sobering lesson worth pondering in this country, as thousands of American troops--including veterans of Panama--stand poised in the Middle East awaiting orders that could send them against another regime many regard as criminal.