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DE RUEHZP #1440/01 2392209
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FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
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INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUCNFB/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 001440 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KCRM KJUS PM
SUBJECT: PANAMA:  CABINET RESIGNS, PEDRO MIGUEL GONZALEZ 
MAY BE GIVEN CABINET JOB 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William A. Eaton.  Reasons:  1.4(b) 
and (d) 
 
---------- 
Summary 
---------- 
 
¶1.  (C) President Torrijos, entire cabinet composed of 
fourteen ministers resigned on the afternoon of August 27. 
Torrijos will now be free to accept and reject resignations 
as he reorganizes his cabinet.  This sudden mass resignation 
is not only the culmination of months-long rumors of a 
cabinet shuffle, but may also be designed by Torrijos to 
resolve the political fate of National Assembly Deputy Pedro 
Miguel Gonzalez, who is also a U.S. federal fugitive wanted 
for the 1992 murder of U.S. serviceman Zak Hernandez. 
Torrijos might offer Pedo Miguel Gonzalez (PMG), a &minor8 
ministerial position as an alternative to PMG's election as 
President of the National Assembly, First VP and FM Samuel 
Lewis told Ambassador on August 25.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Cabinet Resigns; Torrijos Free to Reorganize 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2.  (U) Following a lunch hosted by Minister of the 
Presidency Ubaldino Real, Panamanian media reported that 
Torrijos, entire 14-member cabinet had submitted its 
resignations.  Torrijos is now free to reorganize his cabinet 
by accepting or rejecting the resignations that have been 
presented to him. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Lewis, Views on Torrijos, Political Challenges 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3.  (C) During a meeting with Ambassador on August 25, Lewis 
spoke at length about the political challenges faced by 
Torrijos within the governing Democratic Revolutionary Party 
(PRD) because of the public controversy about the candidacy 
for President of the National Assembly of Pedro Miguel 
Gonzalez, who is wanted in the U.S. for the cold-blooded 1992 
murder of U.S. serviceman Zak Hernandez.  Public speculation 
about USG unhappiness with PMG's candidacy had limited 
Torrijos' room to maneuver within the party to find a 
replacement candidate, Lewis said.  Lewis asserted that 
Torrijos had made a strategic blunder by opening up the field 
for self-nominations for the Assembly Presidency.  Once PMG 
announced his candidacy and began consolidating his support, 
Lewis explained, Torrijos was boxed into a dilemma.  That 
dilemma, Lewis said, was manageable until the public 
speculation gained momentum about USG pressure to block PMG's 
candidacy.  Now, Lewis said, many within the PRD were beating 
their chests about sovereignty and the need to "stand up to 
the gringos."  While Lewis confided that he was still 99 
percent sure Torrijos could avoid PMG's election as Assembly 
President, his options were more limited.  One option, he 
said, was to appoint PMG to head a &minor8 ministry vacated 
during the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
Ambassador Underscores U.S. Concerns About PMG 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Ambassador reiterated to Lewis the strong feelings in 
the U.S. about elevating a cold-blooded assassin of a U.S. 
soldier -- who is a fugitive from U.S. justice -- to a 
position of leadership in the PRD-led National Assembly . 
While he could understand President Torrijos' internal party 
dilemma, Ambassador said that the appointment of PMG to a 
ministerial position would cause many in the U.S. to question 
the true intentions of an otherwise friendly government. 
Such a U.S. reaction would not be helpful, but furthermore 
would be particularly unconstructive as the U.S. Congress 
prepared to deliberate on the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion 
Agreement (TPA). 
 
-------------------- 
The Cabinet Shuffle 
-------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) Lewis told Ambassador on August 25 that one scenario 
being considered is for all of the Cabinet members to submit 
their letters of resignation to the President, who would then 
pick and choose which of the letters to accept.  Lewis said 
that he had no intention of leaving the Foreign Ministry 
until after the intra-party elections in March 2008.  Lewis 
did not plan to be a candidate for internal PRD posts, but 
was actively supporting Housing Minister Balbina Herrera, 
who, he said, was consolidating her support.  After these 
elections, the campaigning for the primaries would begin in 
earnest, and he would join in the competition.  However, 
Lewis told Ambassador that he would take advantage of every 
possible opportunity now to be visible in every corner of the 
country to enhance his visibility domestically.  This 
weekend, for example, he rode a horse in a festival in the 
Panama City suburb of Juan Diaz and tossed out the first ball 
in the Panama-Japan baseball tournament. 
 
¶6.  (C) Among those ministers being considered for 
replacement are: 
 
-- Ubaldino Real Wants to Step Down &For a while:8 
Torrijos, close friend and confidant, the Minister of the 
Presidency,  Lewis reported, asked to step down from the 
Cabinet "for a while."  Notoriously thin-skinned, Real has 
bristled at public and private whispers of his involvement in 
corruption.  He also suffers from poor health, allegedly 
related to stress. 
 
--  Camilo Alleyne Out:  Minister of Health Alleyne had been 
roundly criticized for the death of over 100 Panamanians 
poisoned by medicines laced with diethylene glycol imported 
from China.  A somber Alleyne was departing Lewis' home as 
Ambassador arrived after Lewis had delivered to him the bad 
news about his impending replacement.  Lewis told Ambassador 
that Alleyne's principal concern was avoiding legal 
prosecution after he lost the immunity conveyed by his 
ministerial position. 
 
--  Reynaldo Rivera Wants Out:  Minister of Labor Rivera 
faced calls for his resignation by the leftist labor union 
SUNTRACS after the recent deaths of two union members.  Lewis 
told Ambassador that Rivera asked to leave the Cabinet. 
 
--  Miguel Angel Canizales Out:   Minister of Education 
Canizales had also been persistently criticized for poor 
performance and inaction in resolving Panama's decaying 
educational system.  Furthermore, his inability to control 
students and faculty from regularly disrupting classes and 
blocking off major thoroughfares with sometimes violent 
protests put him in a weak position. 
 
--  Ruben Blades Wants To Go:  Minister of Tourism Blades, 
not shy about telling everyone who will listen how much he 
hated his job, wanted to return to recording music and 
acting. 
 
---------- 
Comment 
---------- 
 
¶7.  (C) A Cabinet shake up is long overdue.  Given President 
Torrijos' usual hand-wringing over difficult decisions (or 
most decisions, for that matter), the U.S. will avoid public 
comments for now that might force his hand in ways that might 
further aggravate the situation.  If, however, PMG is 
appointed as a minister or elected President of the National 
Assembly, the U.S. cannot remain silent regarding the facts 
of PMG's outstanding arrest warrant and the crimes for which 
he continues to be wanted in the United States.  Were 
Torrijos to move PMG to the Cabinet, Torrijos would no longer 
have any plausible deniability that PMG,s ascension the head 
of the legislature was due to the independent actions of an 
independent branch of government, but rather would taking 
this fugitive from justice into his own cabinet; in short, 
Torrijos could be seen as intentionally harboring a U.S. 
fugitive.  End comment. 
EATON