PANAMA: PORTOBELO - LANDMARK TOWN ONCE PLAGUED BY

UNCLAS PANAMA 000206

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PM SNAR
SUBJECT: PANAMA: PORTOBELO - LANDMARK TOWN ONCE PLAGUED BY
PIRATES STRUGGLES TO SURVIVE

REF: 05 STATE 01591

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SUMMARY
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1. Portobelo is a small village of 7,000 people on Panama's
Atlantic coast, located on a difficult road 40 kilometers
east of Colon. Community leaders invited EmbOffs to visit
and discussed their town's needs and their concerns about
drug traffickers who transit the coastal waters. Portobelo
contains historic ruins from its era as Spain's principal
port of entry to the isthmus and its colonies in western
South America. The United Nations Education, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized it in 1980 as a
cultural landmark. Despite its historical significance,
Portobelo is a rundown hamlet and Panama has done little to
make it a tourist destination. Few tour buses come to the
town and most visitors spend only an hour or two in the ruins
of the forts that once defended the harbor from pirates or
tour the restored Spanish customs house constructed in 1630.
The future of Portobelo is linked to the downtrodden port of
Colon (reftel),the northern entry to the Panama Canal and
the country's second largest city. In the past year, both
Ambassador Watt and Ambassador Eaton have visited Colon to
highlight U.S. interest in the town. The Embassy also
maintains a virtual presence in Colon. Last October, during
a port call, the crew of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter
voluntarily refurbished a school in Colon. The Embassy has
encouraged the Government of Panama (GOP) to focus on Colon,
a center for money laundering, drug trafficking, and other
illegal activities that can easily travel via ship to the
shores of America. End summary.

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Columbus slept here
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2. In 1502 Christopher Columbus discovered Portobelo's
harbor when he sought refuge from a violent storm. The
nearby city of Colon is named for him. The Spanish
constructed a village and port at Portobelo in 1597 that was
their port of exit and entry into South America until 1738.
Each year during this era, a fleet of 25 to 35 ships traveled
from Spain to Portobelo. Following the arrival of the fleet,
the sleepy port came to life for 30 to 60 days as a great
trade fair took place. The ships would then depart for Spain
filled with gold and other treasures from Peru, the
Philippines, and other parts of Spain's new world empire.
Portobelo would then become a quiet seaside town until the
Spanish ships returned. Slaves carried much of the ship's
cargo across the 50 mile isthmus that links Panama's Pacific
and Atlantic coasts. So many persons died on this trail that
it was named Camino de las Cruces or Trail of the Crosses.
In the 1850s prior to the construction of the railroad
linking Panama's Atlantic and Pacific sides, Portobelo
briefly sprung to life again. Many of the "49ers" used
Portobelo and Camino de las Cruces to cross Panama and
shorten their journey to the gold fields of California by
7000 miles. The construction of the trans-Panama railroad
and the Panama Canal once again made Portobelo a relic of the
past. Today descendants of African slaves that once worked
in the port give the region a rich culture that draws on its
African, Indian, and Spanish heritage.



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Sir Francis Drake Sleeps with the Fishes
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3. The raids by pirates on Portobelo's forts and ships are
well documented. In 1596, before its official founding, Sir
Francis Drake died of fever while attacking the town.
Drake's crew buried him at sea in a lead coffin near the
harbor's entrance and today some divers still seek his
coffin. In 1668 Henry Morgan led an especially gruesome
attack on the town. After using nuns and monks to place
ladders against the walls of the fort, Morgan's band scaled
the ramparts and spent several days torturing, murdering, and
looting the surviving inhabitants. Somehow Portobelo
survived the frequent raids from the sea but in 1738 Spain
abandoned the route across Panama in favor of the longer but
much safer route around Cape Horn to travel to Spain.

Portobelo went into a deep sleep from which it rarely awakens.

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Little Gained from UNESCO Recognition
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4. Portobelo has gained little from its UNESCO recognition.
A state of the art museum in the former Spanish Customs House
does little to make the rest of the town attractive to
visitors. The twisting narrow coastal road leading to the
town is difficult for cars and nearly impassable for buses
that rarely visit from the cruise ships docked at nearby
Colon. Three small oceanside restaurants offer decent food
but lack service, comfort, or ambiance. Most of the streets
are unpaved, there is no parking lot, and the residents have
built houses on the ruins of the old fort. In October of
each year Portobelo briefly revives as religious pilgrims
arrive to pray before the statue of the Black Christ of
Portobelo in the town's church. Many of the pilgrims walk
from their villages to visit Panama's most important
religious shrine. As the pilgrimage concludes, the statue is
carried from the church on a platform by 80 men followed by
hundreds of pilgrims holding candles. The statue is then
returned to the church marking the end of the feast and
Portobelo again returns to its slumber.






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Wish List Presented to EmbOffs
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5. Portobelo's Mayor Carlos Chavarria told EmbOffs of the
pressing need to repair the town's water system for $10,000
and to build an emergency room onto the town's medical clinic
for $28,000. The radios used by the town's police are also
obsolete and unable to reach the Panamanian National Police
Headquarters in Colon. Julio Kenyon, President Torrijos
Special Advisor to Colon was also present during the visit.
Kenyon could clearly fund such small projects but as during
President Bush's visit last year, Panama frequently wants
"deliverables" (i.e. cash) from any USG visitors. Chavarria
spoke about the possibility of drug runners using his town to
transfer cargoes to an overland route. However, Portobelo's
highway is a narrow chokepoint where the police could easily
stop any vehicle. A more realistic plan is for smugglers to
stage refueling boats in Portobelo to refuel drug carrying
vessels at sea. Portobelo now exists as a suburb of Colon
and many of its residents commute to work there in the
colorfully painted but ramshackled school buses that are the
backbone of Panama's public transportation system. The loss
of these jobs in Colon would be another serious blow to
Portobelo and could result in the return of modern day
pirates to the town.

EATON