PANAMA: REHABILITATING THE DICTATORSHIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000919

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PM VE CU
SUBJECT: PANAMA: REHABILITATING THE DICTATORSHIP

REF: A. PANAMA 0824

B. 04 PANAMA 0896

C. 05 PANAMA 1729

Classified By: AMBASSADOR WILLIAM EATON FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
--------------

1. (C) A joke making the rounds in Panama is that the only
ex-Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) officer who hasn't found a
job in the Torrijos government is Manuel Noriega. The
late-April elevation of former Dignity Battalions chief
Benjamin Colamarco to the cabinet as Minister of Public Works
is why the joke bites. (See Reftel A, "President Torrijos
Shakes Up Cabinet.") According to one estimate, some 40
former PDF officers are working for the GOP, not counting
many civilians with close ties to Noriega, some of them
convicted criminals like Colamarco.


2. (C) The growing prominence of former Noriega cronies in
the GOP -- and that includes national assemblyman Pedro
Miguel Gonzalez, presumed killer in 1992 of U.S. service
member Zak Hernandez -- is more of a threat to Panama's
democratic credibility through flourishing corruption,
non-transparent practices, intolerance to criticism, and
stifling the media than through any potential overt attack on
the state. No one (so far as we know) is plotting the
dictatorship's return. And it is true that, after the
1999-2004 Moscoso government, no one can accuse former
Noriegistas of cornering the market in corrupt practices or
press manipulation. The 21-year dictatorship was the most
corrupt era in Panama's history.


3. (C) Meanwhile, the silence in Panama that has greeted the
step-by-step rehabilitation of the dictatorship -- from the
so-called opposition parties or from civil society -- is
deafening. Even those who stridently opposed Noriega during
the 1980s, such as Roberto Eisenmann of La Prensa, are not
excited. Eisenmann told the Ambassador that he perceives no
"left-ward lurch," that Colamarco has paid his debt to
society and has proven competence, and that Panama is a small
society with limited experienced personnel.


4. (C) Martin Torrijos himself was close enough to the
action during the Noriega years to be subjected to
allegations of involvement in a 1985 Noriega-linked,
drug-related kidnapping, which he prevented from appearing in
the press just days before the 2004 election. (See Reftel B
-- "Torrijos Team Stifles Election Eve Bombshell.") Could it
be a coincidence that in 2005 Torrijos appointed the
kidnapper's wife, Lorena Rodriguez de Mata, as Consul General
in Hamburg?


5. (C) Colamarco's elevation is one more reason to be
disillusioned with the idealism and promise for reform that
greeted the 2004 Torrijos election victory. Instead, the GOP
more and more looks like a continuation of Noriega's
government, sans Noriega. How much does that matter? The
USG may be concerned that the growing ranks of Noriega
supporters within the GOP, with their proven authoritarian
affinities and record of disregard for press freedoms and
human rights, may be less friendly toward the United States
and more open to regional autocrats, like Castro and Chavez,
than proven democrats. Also, it is possible that public
opinion will turn against Torrijos and focus on a "no" vote
in the upcoming Canal widening referendum. (See Reftel C,
"Panamanian Insiders accuse Torrijos Government of Poor
Planning and Public Relations, Procrastination and Bad
Political Judgement." End Summary and Analysis.

Rehabilitating the Dictatorship
--------------

6. (C) With the naming of Benjamin Colamarco as Public Works
minister, the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party's (PRD)
links to its past as the political vehicle for Panama's
1968-1989 military dictatorship now are in full view. Since
taking office in 2004, President Torrijos has done many
favors for Noriega-era PRD "dinosaurs" and has placed many of
them -- including Noriega's immediate family -- in positions
of power and influence in his government. Nonetheless,
Torrijos has publicly stated that Manuel Noriega, who faces
several 20-year sentences for numerous past offenses, will be
jailed whenever he returns to Panama following his planned
release from U.S. custody in November 2007.

Who is Benjamin Colamarco?
--------------

7. (C) Benjamin Colamarco, who now controls a $235 million
public works budget, was commander of Dignity Battalions
(DB),which Noriega created in 1988. The DB functioned as
Manuel Noriega's private army, essentially a goon squad,
whose job was to intimidate and terrorize the citizenry
through torture and murder. Elements of the DB fought U.S.
forces during the 12-20-1989 Just Cause invasion that
overthrew the Noriega regime and restored democracy to
Panama. (Note: The GOP gave the Embassy no notice or warning
of its planned cabinet changes. End Note.)


8. (C) Colamarco served nearly four years in prison
(1990-1993) for "assaults against State personnel." Torrijos
named Colamarco "coordinator of the popular masses" in 2000.
During Fidel Castro's visit to Panama in 2001, Colamarco
attended a university event to honor the Cuban dictator with
pro-Cuba SUNTRACS labor union leaders Genaro Lopez and Saul
Mendez. In the present GOP, Colamarco served as land
registry chief within the Ministry of Economy and Finance
(2004-2006). On the eve of President Bush's arrival in
Panama in November 2005, Colamarco publicly criticized the
Iraq invasion, which he called "a violation of international
law," embarrassing Torrijos and VP/Foreign Minister Samuel
Lewis. Colamarco also was the driving force behind a
late-2005 draft law that aimed to remove property rights
currently held by hundreds of foreigners -- including
American citizens -- notably in Bocas del Toro. (Embassy
advocacy led the GOP to amend the law's more troublesome
provisions.)


9. (SBU) Colamarco's wife, Marta Amado, sister of Noriega's
mistress, the notorious Vicky Amado, currently is Panama's
Postal Director.

Hector and Balbina
--------------

10. (C) Perhaps the best known of Torrijos's Noriega-era
appointments are Hector Aleman, who recently resigned from
his post as Minister of Government and Justice, and Housing
Minister Balbina Herrera. Both currently are members of the
PRD leadership. Both have "reinvented" themselves and have
shown that they are willing and able to cooperate with U.S.
officials. In the late 1980s, Aleman was the pro-Noriega
leader of FENASEP, the public employees union. Mayor of San
Miguelito and PRD firebrand in the late 1980s, later elected
to the National Assembly, Balbina is famous for starting a
public brawl that forced the cancellation of President Bush's
sole public appearance during his 1992 visit to in Panama.

Pedro Miguel Gonzalez: Wanted For Murder
--------------

11. (C) The Torrijos government has given privileged access
to funds and favors to Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, the presumed
murderer of U.S. Army Sgt. Zak Hernandez in 1992. According
to Panamenista legislator Luis Cleghorn, Pedro Miguel's
requests for his community (district 8-10, Panama's largest)
gets special treatment from the public works and housing
ministries and from FIS, the president's social investment
fund. (Comment: FIS in effect is an official presidential
slush fund with a corrupt reputation. End Comment.) The GOP
is careful to invite Gonzalez to virtually every GOP event.
Also, according to Embassy sources, the GOP is about to ask
the National Assembly's Canal affairs committee (chaired by
PRD moderate Tomas Altamirano) to create a sub-committee to
follow the Canal expansion project which will allegedly be
chaired by Pedro Miguel Gonzalez. The action would be taken
as a nod to the PRD's leftist "Tendencia" faction. It would
also, one assumes, open up possibilities for graft on Canal
contracts

Warning Given to Torrijos
--------------

12. (C) In 2001, the Embassy political section demarched
Torrijos as Secretary General of the PRD about his perceived
close ties (they had appeared together in news photos and
appeared to be the best of friends) and frequent meetings
with Gonzalez. The section chief reminded Torrijos that
Gonzalez was a wanted man in the United States. Torrijos
replied that the Embassy should not worry about him,
Torrijos, as he was pro-American. But he added that the
Embassy would have to understand that Pedro Miguel's father,
Gerardo, was important in the PRD (he had been party
president),and that Torrijos had to act out of respect to
the Gonzalez-Vernaza family, which came from Veraguas, where
his father, Omar was from.

Sandra and Thays Noriega
--------------

13. (C) In 2004 President Torrijos appointed Noriega's
daughter, Sandra, as consul at the Panamanian Embassy to the
Dominican Republic, where Torrijos is known to have business
interests. Torrijos also appointed Sandra's younger sister,
Thays, as foreign service third secretary, who failed the
entrance exam (although she had the highest score of her
group). When asked to comment on Sandra's and other
Noriega-era appointments, former GOP Secretary of Plans,
Ibrahim Asvat said, ambiguously, "They just don't perceive
they are doing something that might turn off the electorate."
In 2004, Asvat had characterized Sandra's appointment as the
action of "a government of rookies."

A Long Cast of Characters
--------------

14. (C) In 2005 Torrijos pardoned Juan Barria Jimenez,
murderer of U.S. citizen Raymond Dragseth and Embassy Panama
FSN Fernando Brathwaite during Operation Just Cause on
December 20, 1989, after serving 15 years of a 20-year
sentence.

(SBU) Elias Castillo, who served one year (1990-1991) for
embezzlement during his term as Noriega-era treasurer of
Panama's City Hall, is currently National Assembly president,
with approval from Torrijos.

(U) Jorge Ritter, Noriega's foreign minister, is a
presidential advisor and speech writer.

(SBU) Daniel Delgado, a former PDF colonel, intelligence
staff officer, and close military collaborator with Omar
Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, is Director of Customs, rumored
to be in line for Deputy Minister of Government and Justice.

(SBU) Aristides Royo, a Panamanian president hand-picked by
the military without having to bother with messy elections,
now is Panama's ambassador at the OAS.

(SBU) Orville Gooding, Noriega's Finance and Economy
Minister, in whose office the U.S. military found millions of
dollars in cash, now is a Torrijos economic advisor.

(U) Francisco "Pancho" Rodriguez, Noriega's final hand-picked
president, whom Noriega placed in office after annulling
Guillermo Endara's 1989 election victory prior to Just Cause,
is also a Torrijos economic advisor.

(U) Former PDF Major Severino Mejia, a former Noriega
aide-de-camp, is advisor to the Minister of Government and
Justice.

Comment
--------------

15. (C) In a sense, the Torrijos government's choice of
personnel exemplifies "the PRD being the PRD." Former PRD
President Ernesto Perez Balladares (1994-1999) had forced the
entire Noriega crowd below decks. By appointing them to
positions of power, Torrijos hopes to gain political
advantage over PB within the PRD. The Embassy is watching
the GOP's conduct carefully to judge whether the new
appointments and changes in ideological coloration also
signal a change in political direction or foreign policy.

EATON