This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 PANAMA 000875 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2014 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ETRD EAGR PM POL CHIEF
SUBJECT: PANAMA'S FORMER PRESIDENT GUILLERMO ENDARA DRIVES 
SOLIDARITY PARTY VEHICLE IN LAST HURRAH.  WHAT AN ENDARA 
PRESIDENCY WOULD MEAN FOR U.S. INTERESTS. 
 
 
REF: A. PANAMA 0111 
     ¶B. PANAMA 0802 
 
 
Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES CHRISTOPHER J. MCMULLEN FOR REASONS 1. 
5 (B) AND (D). 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 

¶1.  (SBU) His campaign may lack money and glitz and his poll 
numbers are stubbornly stuck in second place behind Martin 
Torrijos but former president Guillermo Endara (1989-1994) is 
confident his single-message campaign -- that he is Panama's 
only hope for honest government -- will catapult him to the 
presidency once more.  But many observers say that Endara had 
his chance already, and the time for Endara and his aging 
associates has past.  The most frankly protectionist of the 
four presidential candidates, Endara claims he wants a Free 
Trade Agreement that is good for the United States and for 
Panama.  Endara plans to cooperate closely with U.S. agencies 
on security and law enforcement.  He has said, if elected, he 
plans to put "big wheels" behind bars for corruption, and has 
mentioned President Mireya Moscoso by name.  The vehicle that 
67-year-old Endara has chosen for his presumably last foray 
into presidential politics, is Samuel Lewis Galindo's 
Solidarity Party, founded in 1993 as an anti-old-guard PRD 
offshoot, "PRD lite" as it is known in some circles.  The 
wily Lewis Galindo, who is 76, may be Panama's only 
politician who stands to lose nothing on May 2.  With Endara 
as its candidate (the latest poll gives him 29% of the vote), 
the party will easily pass the 4% bar it needs to survive and 
to secure a hefty electoral subsidy.  If Endara wins, 
Solidarity will become the ruling party (though without a 
majority in the legislature).  If he loses, as seems 
increasingly likely, the probable winner will be Martin 
Torrijos, whose vice presidential running mate, former 
Solidarity leader Samuel Lewis Navarro, is Galindo's nephew. 
 
 
¶2.  (C) From our perspective, the biggest potential drawback 
to an Endara government would be the lack of young 
technocrats needed to implement the policies that Panama 
needs to pursue.  Endara's principal policy advisors are well 
past their prime and many observers believe that a second 
Endara government would be even more lackluster than the 
first one (which missed many opportunities to change Panama's 
politics-as-usual).  End Summary. 
 
 
How To Stop the PRD? 
-------------------- 

¶3.  (SBU) Posing as the campaign's subversive in a field of 
four candidates, Endara is betting that a majority of voters 
will wake up on polling day (May 2) and ask themselves -- 
"How can I stop the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and 
Martin Torrijos?" -- and conclude Endara is their best hope, 
Endara's campaign manager and four-decade law partner Menalco 
Solis said.  In a recent meeting with POL Counselor, Solis 
claimed that Endara is only 7-8 percentage points behind PRD 
front-runner Martin Torrijos, about half what the polls 
indicate.  Solis explained that an Endara victory on May 2 
will hinge on what he called a "historical tendency" for the 
Torrijos campaign to collapse as election day nears, as he 
loses many voters who at the last minute cannot bring 
themselves to vote PRD.  Thousands of state workers will vote 
for Endara because they see him, not Arnulfista 
standard-bearer Jose Miguel Aleman, as their best bet to hold 
onto their jobs, which would be lost if the PRD wins, Solis 
reasoned. 
 
 
"Incredible Enthusiasm" 
----------------------- 

¶4.  (SBU) The polls may show Torrijos has nearly 50% of the 
vote, Solis said, but he argued that it just doesn't "feel" 
like one out of two Panamanians are really planning to vote 
for Martin.  On the contrary, the enthusiasm for Endara on 
the campaign trail has been "unbelievable," he said.  Solis 
described how a crowd in Los Santos had waited in the sun 
over six hours for Endara to arrive.  People told Solis that 
the warmth of the crowds compares only to how Panamanians 
once greeted president Arnulfo Arias, the deceased husband of 
President Mireya Moscoso, Solis said. 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) "Mark my words," Solis said, "when people see that 
they have a choice between Endara and the PRD, they'll vote 
against the PRD."  This is Endara's fifth electoral campaign, 
Solis said, and he's never been more optimistic about his 
chances on May 2 than this month.  Solis claimed Endara (who 
was president during 1989-1994) will carry the provinces of 
Panama, Colon, Chiriqui, Los Santos, Herrera, but not Cocle, 
Darien, or Comarca Kuna Yala, with Comarca Ngobe Bugle a toss 
up, and that Solidarity would elect 13-to-19 legislators. 
(Comment: Our own estimates differ sharply.  With the 
smallest electoral base of the three leading campaigns 
(73,000 registered members), we think Solidarity will be 
lucky to win six legislative seats, up from four presently. 
End Comment.) 
 
 
Endara: No Promises 
------------------- 

¶6.  (SBU) Endara refuses to make a lot of specific promises 
in the campaign, Solis continued (besides running an honest 
government, locking up corrupt bigwigs, and helping 
Panamanian farmers), because he does not have to.  His 
credibility and his honesty are his main assets.  Endara also 
has not asked big companies or wealthy individuals for 
contributions because he does not want to give the impression 
that he owes political favors to anyone.  Lack of money is 
not impeding Solidarity's plans to get its supporters to the 
polls, Solis claimed, somewhat improbably. 
 
 
Likely Appointees 
----------------- 

¶7.  (SBU) Endara has announced some names of people he plans 
to appoint to high office, such as first vice presidential 
running mate (former vice president, ambassador to the U.S.) 
Guillermo "Billy" Ford to head a reconstituted Planning 
Ministry; second vice presidential running mate (former 
agriculture minister) Alejandro Posse to head the agriculture 
ministry; (former Foreign Minister) Jose Raul Mulino to 
Foreign Minister; and Mercedes Arauz de Grimaldo to Attorney 
General.  Endara has identified a candidate to head the 
Panama National Police (PNP), whom Solis refused to name, and 
expects to send him to the United States for training 
immediately following the election. 
 
 
"We'll Put Big Wheels In Jail" 
------------------------------ 

¶8.  (SBU) As president, Endara will focus on fiscal rectitude 
and give his attorney general free rein to prosecute Panama's 
most egregiously corrupt politicians.  Endara has said 
publicly that he will not interfere with the attorney 
general's work but has named Mireya Moscoso, who will step 
down as president September 1, as one of the "big wheels" he 
aims to see behind bars.  He has said that he will end 
Parlacen (Central American Parliament) immunity for 
Panamanians.  (Note: Former president Ernesto Perez 
Balladares availed himself of Parlacen immunity and current 
president Mireya Moscoso has plans to do the same.) 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Endara also says he will sponsor a complete rewrite 
of the constitution.  When he was president, Endara tried to 
rewrite the constitution, which dates from the military 
dictatorship, through a badly drafted 1992 referendum, which 
failed with voters. 
 
 
New Party? 
---------- 

¶10.  (SBU) If elected, Endara probably will form a new 
political party, Solis said.  Endara believes that the 
Arnulfista Party, which he helped found, has outlived its 
usefulness and has become "a bad word" for the people due to 
corruption. 
 
 
Frankly Protectionist 
--------------------- 

¶11.  (SBU) Solis acknowledged Endara's frankly protectionist 
bias, especially on agriculture.  "We are more protectionist 
than the other parties," he said.  Endara believes that 
Panamanian farmers must remain capable of producing staples 
(rice, beans, meat, etc.) to feed the population.  He also 
decried U.S. agricultural subsidies, claiming that opening 
Panama's market to subsidized U.S. products would drive 
farmers out of business.  (Note: In part due to pressure from 
this Embassy, President Moscoso removed Alejandro Posse from 
his position as Agriculture Minister in 2000 because of his 
insistence that Panama maintain high tariffs across the board 
on agricultural products.) 
 
 
Comment: Hand Holding Needed 
---------------------------- 

¶12.  (C) Times have changed since the early 1990s, when 
Endara used to meet former Ambassador Deane Hinton weekly for 
breakfast, but Endara still may be counting on a certain 
amount of hand-holding.  Endara wants to cooperate closely 
with the United States on security and law enforcement 
matters but his campaign clearly has not thought out its 
security posture as thoroughly as the PRD has; more worrisome 
is that he seems to lack qualified advisors to fill key 
positions.  Endara's unnamed nominee to head the PNP 
apparently is someone without any security background at all. 
 Solis will likely become Endara's national security advisor, 
a post he held under Endara's presidency.  He apparently 
intends to rely heavily on "civilian" USG advice on security 
matters.  (Note: These remarks reflect the general neuralgia 
in Endara's camp regarding anything that smacks of 
"military," a legacy of the Torrijos/Noriega dictatorship. 
End Note.) 
 
 
"Voting Their Conscience" 
------------------------- 

¶13.  (C) Endara's electoral success, if it materializes as 
Solis suggests, will have to come from thousands of 
Panamanians who, at the eleventh hour, decide to "vote their 
conscience" in the polling booths to stop the PRD, although 
we have seen no evidence to suggest he is right, or that it 
would apply to younger voters as well.  Among Panama's nearly 
2 million registered voters, over 300,000 are voting for the 
first time.  Without a track record, they are a potential 
wild card in these elections, especially for Endara's 
prospects.  In fact, as Torrijos firms his grip on 
front-runner status with just weeks to go, we are unclear 
whether Endara actually will finish second (despite the 
polls), or whether he will finish third to Aleman.  Aleman, 
whom the polls have shown languishing in single digits until 
recently, can draw on a much stronger alliance and electoral 
machinery than Endara. 
 
 
The Panamanian Labyrinth 
------------------------ 

¶14.  (C) Despite Endara's antipathy to the PRD, not even his 
campaign is without "baggage" from the dictatorship period. 
In Panama, politicians who served governments under the 
dictatorships prior to 1990 are not confined to the PRD. 
Solis himself is a case in point, having served briefly as 
Manuel Noriega's Minister of Finance (1984-85).  More 
importantly, he is widely thought to have been the brains 
behind the 1984 electoral fraud that secured Nicolas 
Barletta's "victory" over the grand old man of Panamanian 
politics, Arnulfo Arias, namesake of the Arnulfista party. 
(Thus the uproar fifteen years ago when Endara named Solis as 
his National Security Advisor during his Presidency.) 
 
 
Bio Note 
-------- 

¶15.  (SBU) Born in Panama in 1936, Guillermo Endara Galimany 
was a long-time associate and confidant of three-time 
president Arnulfo Arias Madrid, to whom Mireya Moscoso was 
married until his death in 1988.  He served briefly as 
Minister of Planning under Arias in 1968 until a military 
coup terminated the administration.  Endara later founded the 
Arnulfista Party, from which Moscoso expelled him in 2003 
after he announced his candidacy for president on the 
Solidarity ticket.  In 1989 Endara was elected president in 
an election that dictator Manuel Noriega annulled.  Operation 
Just Cause restored his presidency and removed Noriega in 
December 1989.  Endara is recognized for consolidating an 
economy sacked by years of military rule in less time than 
expected but the coalition supporting him was weak and slowly 
disintegrated.  To his credit, Endara held power during 
unstable times.  He survived several attacks on his life and 
at least one foiled coup d'etat attempt by former Panamanian 
Defense Force loyalists.  His administration is remembered 
for good economic times, honest but not always adept 
administration, and fractious politics. 
 
 
MCMULLEN