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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