VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHZP #0206/01 0342147
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 032147Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7307
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 2151
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0929
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL//J5/J2/POLAD//

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 
 
------- 
 SUMMARY 
 ------- 
¶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. 
 
------------------- 
Columbus slept here 
------------------- 
¶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. 
 
 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Sir Francis Drake Sleeps with the Fishes 
---------------------------------------- 
¶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. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Little Gained from UNESCO Recognition 
------------------------------------- 
¶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. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------------------------ 
Wish List Presented to EmbOffs 
------------------------------ 
¶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