Panama Leader Urges Use of Base as Anti-Narcotics Center

President Ernesto Perez Balladares of Panama, in the United States for talks with President Clinton, on Wednesday suggested creating a Western Hemisphere anti-narcotics center in one of the American military facilities scheduled to be turned over to Panama at the end of the century.

Perez Balladares said at a news conference that Clinton seemed “very interested” in the proposed center, which would encourage cooperation among the region’s governments to stop drug trafficking and money laundering.

He said the drug cartels have far greater power and resources than any of the Latin American governments.

Without effective cooperation among the nations, he said, “the drug traffickers and money launderers will jump from one country [which launches an effective anti-narcotics program] to another.”

In December, 1989, President George Bush sent U.S. troops to Panama to overthrow dictator Manuel A. Noriega and bring him to trial in the United States on drug trafficking charges. Noriega, who was convicted in April, 1992, is serving a 40-year sentence at a prison outside Miami.

Perez Balladares said Panama would provide the anti-narcotics facility without charge but would expect countries participating in the joint effort to pay operating expenses. He said the facility should be open to Latin American nations that produce, process and distribute drugs and to drug-consuming countries such as the United States.

Under the 1977 Panama Canal treaties, Panama will gain control over the Atlantic-Pacific waterway at midnight Dec. 31, 1999. All U.S. military bases are scheduled to be closed at that time.

U.S. and Panamanian officials said Clinton and Perez Balladares also agreed to open preliminary talks about the possibility of stationing some U.S. troops in Panama for at least the first few years of the next century. Although U.S. forces have been posted in Panama since the country declared its independence from Colombia in 1903, both governments are ambivalent about continuing the relationship.

Perez Balladares said Panama will be able to maintain the security of the country and the canal without the help of U.S. troops, but he said that his government might be willing to let the Americans stay because of the boost that the troops give to the economy.

U.S. officials said that the Pentagon wants to retain its largest base in Latin America but that the White House is reluctant to keep facilities in Panama open at a time when bases in the United States are being closed.

Perez Balladares said the joint study will allow both governments to weigh the pros and cons of extending the presence of American forces.