From then until 1968, Panama was ruled by pro-US oligarchs which gave troops to help the CIA fight communism in the hemisphere. The government of Panama also made huge deals with Standard Oil and United Fruit Company, allowing these corporations to come to Panama and exploit her resources. The US military intervened twelve times before 1968 to fight off a revolution and ensure that those in power stayed in power. This all changed in 1968 with the election of Omar Torrijos.
Omar Torrijos was the first democratically elected President of Panama. He stood for the rights of the people of Panama and especially the poor. Torrijos wanted to prove to the world that Panama was a strong country, rich with resources and that Panama stood with the United States, not against them. Torrijos felt very strongly about the rights of the poor, that people of Panama should be thriving because of all the natural wealth in the country. Torrijos knew that the exploitation of Panama and the wealth of very few was in the way of his vision for Panama.
Torrijos was a champion of human rights, he turned Panama into a country that would grant anyone political asylum, no matter which side of the political spectrum they were on. All that was required was that they were seeking to free themselves from political persecution. Torrijos attempted to reconcile the differences between Latin American socialists and military dictators in order to achieve a more cohesive, prosperous Latin America. Many Latin American scholars believed that he should have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. He was simply saying that Panama had it's own rights, rights to sovereignty over its own land and people and that these rights were as valid and as "divinely bestowed" as those rights enjoyed in the US. For the first time in it's history, Panama was not a puppet of the US.
Torrijos never aligned himself and his country with communist Russia or China (even though the American media may say differently). He believed in social reform and helping the destitute, the sick, the impoverished. But Torrijos' principles often conflicted with the strategic interests of the US. Torrijos objected publicly to the School of the Americas and to the US Southern Command's Tropical Warfare Training Center, both of which were located in the US controlled "Canal Zone". For years, the US used these centers as a place to train death squads and torturers that have murdered so many in the region. The US would invite military dictators and officers, even their sons, to these schools to receive training. The main issue that put the US at odds with Torrijos was the Canal. And for the first time, with the election of Jimmy Carter, Panama had the opportunity to take back control of their land.
The "Canal Zone" was an interesting sight for those that visited it. On the borders of the jungle is a fenced in city. Everything in the zone was the property of the United States. This included all the businesses such as supermarkets, barbershops, beauty salons, and restaurants. Being United States property also ensured that the behavior of US citizens in this area was exempt from judgment of Panamanian laws. It was a little US, military city on Panama's most important piece of land. And Torrijos, being the President of Panama sat in a very important position.
In 1977 Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States and he intended to have serious negotiations with Panama over the control of the canal. Torrijos and his officers were bribed by the US intelligence and business communities in order to undermine the negotiations for control of the canal. This was clear sabotage. But before the end of 1977, Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos finished the negotiations of the new canal treaty. The treaty handed over the canal and the areas surrounding it to the Panamanian government. This was a huge victory for Panama, for Torrijos, and for all Latin American countries that were being enslaved by US policy and military might.
In November of 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in his bid for re-election. Jimmy Carter, a president who was dedicated to reducing US dependence on oil and his main goal was to achieve world peace was replaced by a man who believed that the US had a right to be in control of the world, because the US was superior in all facets. A man that believed military might gave us this right and that controlling natural resources was part of our "Manifest Destiny". Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House roof, Reagan removed them. Concerns about social welfare, the environment and other quality-of-life issues took a back seat to greed motivated issues. Reagan would advocate for an America that controlled the world and all its resources, a world that answered to American desires and a military that enforced and ensured those desires. He would also push a financial, banking and international trade system that supported America as CEO of the world. This change would prove to be fateful for Torrijos and Panama.
With Panama now in control of the canal, they began negotiating for the reconstruction of the canal. They envisioned a new canal without locks on it. One that could handle bigger ships. The reconstruction was viewed as the largest and most profitable construction project in recent history. But there was one little problem, the US and its business elites were used to having a monopoly on such projects. And now that Torrijos was in power, this was no longer the case. Torrijos had been talking to Japan about providing the financing and the companies to design and build the new canal.
The Reagan administration was severely threatened by the Japanese having control over this future construction project and US companies stood to lose billions of dollars if the contract was given to Japanese companies. The US Corporation Bechtel, in particular, was the company that had the most to lose. With a US-controlled Panama, Bechtel easily gets the job. Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz (also served as Secretary of the Treasury under Nixon) was the president of Bechtel. Casper Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense, was a Bechtel vice president and general counsel. The implications of this new construction project were huge and the players in the game, powerful. Reagan's administration looked like a Bechtel board room and Torrijos was entertaining different and better offers. The administration needed to do something.
On July 31, 1981, two months after Jaime Roldos (President of Ecuador) was killed in a plane crash, Omar Torrijos died in a plane crash. The military chiefs, business men, and intelligence men of the Reagan administration had a few options. They could try to find a way around the new treaty or they could dispose of Torrijos and renegotiate with his succesor. They chose the latter. In the words of Torrijos' head of security, Jose de Jesus Martinez, "There was a bomb on that plane. I know there was a bomb on that plane". Torrijos was killed and the murder was covered up, just as the US has done many other times.
But there was still hope for Panama. Colonel Manuel Noriega, Torrijos' protege, became the President. Though Noriega did not have Torrijos' wit, intelligence, or charisma, he seemed to be loyal to the ultimate goals of Torrijos and Panama. He continued talks with the Japanese over the construction of a new canal. Noriega was the head of the Panamanian Defense Forces G-2 unit, the Panamanian equivalent and liaison of the CIA. So he knew well how the US operated to achieve its interests. Noriega, in his memoirs wrote: "Shultz and Weinberger, meanwhile, masquerading as officials operating in the public interest and basking in popular ignorance about the powerful economic interests they represented, were building a propaganda campaign to shoot me down".
The Reagan administration set out with a very familiar propaganda machine intended to vilify Noriega as an evil, murderous dictator and as a Soviet puppet. The same old story, paint an incorrect picture of a leader in order to render public support for military action. On December 20, 1989, the US attacked Panama. The attack was considered the largest airborne assault on a city since World War 2. The attack was unprovoked and was taken out on a civilian population. Panama posed absolutely no threat to America or any other country. All Panama had done was insist that the Canal Treaty be honored, discussed social reform, and had consulted with the Japanese about building a new canal.
The US army did not allow the press, or the Red Cross, or other observers come in to the heavily bombed areas for over 3 days. Soldiers were busy burning and burying the bodies. New Secretary of Defense, under President George H.W Bush, Dick Cheney estimated the death toll to be in between 300 and 500 people. But human rights organizations estimate the death toll to be between 3,000 and 5,000 with another 25,000 left homeless. President Noriega was arrested, flown to Miami, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. This was the first time in our country's history that the military invaded another country, took its leader, and put him on trial for violations of American law committed (or made up) on the leaders sovereign turf. This is a grotesque violation of international law. Peter Eisnar, a scholar and journalist, wrote that "the invasion principally served the goals of arrogant American politicians... at the expense of unconscionable bloodshed".
After the invasion, the Arias family and the oligarchs that ruled Panama before 1968 regained leadership of the country. The new Canal Treaty became an invisible document, one without any merit. America once again controlled the canal even though "official documents" may say differently. Construction has been done on the canal and I assure you that American corporations such as Bechtel and Halliburton got a large piece of that pie. Panama's strive for national sovereignty and independence was thwarted by greed of a few a-hole American leaders. Torrijos was murdered and Noriega put in prison to await his death. Peter Eisnar speaks really well to the whole situation that unfolded. He says "the death, destruction, and injustice wrought in the name of fighting Noriega - and the lies surrounding that event - were threats to the basic American principles of democracy... Soldeirs were ordered to kill in Panama and they did so after being told they had to rescue a country from the clamp of a cruel, depraved dictator, once they acted, the people of their country (the US) marched lockstep behind them."
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