Dear Editor,
On May 24, 1981, Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, died in a plane crash. He had opposed certain policies of the oil companies in his country.
On July 31st 1981 Omar Torrijos, president of Panama, died in a plane crash. He had refused to re-negotiate the termination of his country’s Panama Canal contract. He had been a close friend in the real sense of the word, to Jimmy Carter, one of the very few honest and honorable presidents of North America. He was also a close friend, also in the real sense of the word, to our own Prime Minister, George Cadle Price. It was Torrijos who had warned Price how dangerous the oil-oriented corporations could become.
Torrijos had been negotiating with a Japanese construction firm for the upgrading of the Panama Canal and its locking systems. U.S. construction firms stood to lose billions of dollars. There were many who alleged that he was murdered because of his choice.
Torrijos’ successor was Manuel Noriega, who at first seemed to be committed to follow in Torrijos’ footsteps but who later proved that he was no Torrijos.
Although backed by the CIA at first, he too refused to re-negotiate the Canal treaty, claiming that it would be political suicide to do so. The North American media was once more recruited to do what they did best: a successful media campaign began against Noriega. He was characterized as evil, the enemy of the people, a drug trafficker. What happened next shocked all the members of the United Nations.
On Dec. 20th 1989, the United States of North America and its people unleashed its full fury on the people of Panama, bombing large sections of the city.
Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney claimed that only around six hundred civilians had died. Human rights groups claimed around four thousand, with some 20,000 homeless.
Noriega was eventually arrested, taken to the United States of North America and charged with drug trafficking. The rest is now history.
One notable editor and Associated Press reporter, Peter Einer, wrote: “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 … Soldiers 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 (U.S.) marched lockstep behind them…. On the key point I do not think the evidence shows Noriega was guilty of the charge against him. I do not think his actions as a foreign military leader or a sovereign head of state justify the invasion of Panama or that he represented a threat to U.S. national security. My analysis of the political situation and my reporting in Panama before, during and after the invasion brought me to the conclusion that the U.S. invasion of Panama was an abominable abuse of power. The invasion principally served the goals of arrogant American politicians and their Panamanian allies at the expense of unconscionable bloodshed.”
Now comes the paradox. During the Reagan administration, Belize was used as a depot for illicit drugs bound for the people of the United States. The drugs were to be sold and the proceeds used to buy arms for the Nicaragua Contras. This was the famous “drugs for arms” policy adopted by someone in the administration and for which Oliver North was the sacrificial lamb. So, was the drug dealing charge against Noriega really the pivotal point that justified the invasion of Panama and the death of so many Panamanians?
My prediction is that Noriega will never see the outside of a prison cell. His story will be silenced. He will travel the path of John Wilkes Booth, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby, all held incommunicado until their deaths.
(Signed, but please withhold my name)