PANAMA: BALBINA WINS PRD PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION,

C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000737 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PM SUBJECT: PANAMA: BALBINA WINS PRD PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION, PARTY CLOSES RANKS Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for reason 1.4 (d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (U) Balbina Herrera won the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) primary election September 7, becoming the official presidential candidate for the largest party in the country. Once Juan Carlos Navarro and Laurentino Cortizo conceded, all the candidates met and joined President Martin Torrijos, who is also PRD SecGen, at PRD headquarters for a joint television appearance. Torrijos and Herrera, accompanied Navarro and Cortizo and PRD National Executive Committee (CEN) members on stage, made powerful calls for party unity in order to ensure a PRD victory in the May 2009 elections. In her address Herrera positioned herself as a candidate of continuity who would continue implementation of Torrijos' "New Nation (Patria Nueva)," while offering a message of hope for those who have been left out of the recent economic boom in Panama. She specifically highlighted the current foreign and economic policies as being on target. End Summary. -------------- A Victory From the Heart -------------- ¶2. (U) Torrijos' former Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera won the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) primary election September 7, becoming the official presidential candidate for the largest party in the country. Herrera won 48.7% of the vote, while Juan Carlos Navarro won 39.1%, and Torrijos' former Minister of Agriculture Laurentino Cortizo won 9%. The PRD reported 60% participation, which, given party membership of over 670,000, indicates that over 400,000 people voted in the primary. Herrera gave an emotional victory speech, announcing to Navarro and Cortizo that she was now turning the page on a rough primary camaign, and that they had the door open to them. Herrera, whose campaign slogan was "Torrijista from the Heart," - a reference to former Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos, not his son the current President - described herself as a "daughter of the process", who had been given the opportunity to rise through education as a result of the policies of PRD founder Omar Torrijos. She called on businessmen to realize that, while they had a right to benefit from the economic policies of the government, they also had a responsibility to see to it that the benefits of economic development spread to the middle and lower classes of society. On the 31st anniversary of the Carter-Torrijos Treaty, she noted that this treaty had not only given Panama the resources to confront its social inequalities, but had put its relationship with the U.S. on a foundation of mutual respect. -------------- Torrijos and Balbina Call for Unity -------------- ¶3. (C) A brief media war broke out just before 7pm, when the Navarro campaign apparently began leaking information that the race was very close. Herrera's campaign countered by leaking unofficial results that favored her. Torrijos, acting all night in his capacity as PRD Secretary General, was in the PRD electoral command post receiving the results all night. As soon as Navarro's team began releasing their information, PolCouns witnessed Torrijos call Navarro in, after which the reports ceased. There was then a two hour delay between Herrera's victory address, and the official announcement at PRD headquarters, as PRD officials tried to convince Navarro, who cried during his concession speech, to participate in a joint television appearance with Herrera and the other candidates. Finally, at 9 pm, Torrijos addressed an enthusiastic crowd of PRD and GOP officials, with Herrera, Navarro, Cortizo and several minor candidates on stage with him. Torrijos gave a passionate speech in favor of unity, saying the opposition could, "keep dreaming" about a PRD split, which brought on enthusiastic applause. Torrijos presented the primary itself as a PRD victory, as the party was able to mount two strong campaigns, and generate a massive turn-out for an internal election. Herrera then followed with a speech that meshed well with Torrijos', reinforcing a message of continuity. She hugged Navarro, and insisted on her message from the earlier speech that she had "turned the page," and that there was now only one party, united and strong. Navarro's and Cortizo's presence smiling and relaxed despite the emotion and tension of the day, provided a powerful visual to back up Herrera's and Torrijos' message. Herrera also publicly apologized to Navarro and Cortizo for her campaign having challenged one of Navarro's campaign ads, and getting it pulled off the air. -------------- Continuity and Hope -------------- ¶4. (U) In her appearance with Torrijos, Herrera was even more explicit than in her earlier speech in sending a message of continuity. She told businessmen not to fear, saying the current economic policy was "correct". She also called the current foreign policy "correct." She repeated her call for the fruits of economic growth to reach the middle and lower classes, but pointed out that she was now not just the candidate of the PRD, but of independents and even supporters of the opposition who believed in that message of social justice. She said there would be room for all social sectors in her campaign. She defined the challenges of her eventual government as improving the health care, education and transportation systems, while pushing for decentralization of the government. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶5. (C) The tough primary campaign - perhaps the toughest in terms of public attacks among PRD candidates - revealed significant strain between those members moved by Herrera's message of social justice and upward mobility and the middle and upper class supporters who rallied around Navarro's message of "strong arm (mano dura)" and to Cortizo's intellectual campaign. Given the danger that a real split could have developed, and as Navarro's melt down seemed to encourage it, Torrijos and Herrera stepped in and brought things back under control before any real damage was done. The political theater of the PRD event was well choreographed, and executed, in front of a hometown crowd that knew that division is the PRD's worst enemy. At the same time, Herrera presented a powerful vision of hope for the increasingly restless Panamanian lower classes, despite her defense of much of the Torrijos government's work. The hope was not just contained in her promises, which included a government evenly divided among men and women, but by her own background. In the view of many Panamanians, Herrera's persona -- not male, not white, not wealth and not elite -- is the primary evidence that she will be a change agent. She has a real chance to portray the "process" from which she was born as one that championed a meritocracy, and equal opportunity, thus obscuring some of its darker aspects, with which she has also been identified. Herrera's most significant immediate challenge, however, will be getting her message out beyond her base so it can be heard over the strum und drang created by the opposition and independents fearful of a return to the Noriega years. STEPHENSON