PANAMA SHOULD RETHINK POLICY WITH U.S.
La Prensa/Spanish (Panama)
http://www.sinfo.net
7 October 1999

by Sugiere Mulino

Former chancellor José Raúl Mulino stated that it is urgent that the Panamanian government reestablish its foreign policy within the confines of a new scheme of bilateral relations with the United States and that its reactive posture be abandoned.

"It is better to have a defined foreign policy and avoid having to be reactive when they [the United States] shake things up," added the former chancellor, who was not surprised at the petition from a U.S. group to maintain the military presence in Panama after Dec. 31. The U.S. government has not lost hope that it will convince Panama to accept military presence in the Canal Zone after the end of treaty Dec. 31, said two high-level U.S. officials yesterday. "We take this point very seriously and we have not discarded any options," said subsecretary of state of Political Affairs, Thomas Pickering before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. U.S. anti-drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, explained before the same forum that after dismantling the bases in Panama, the United States lost a key base for antinarcotics operations in the region. "We continue to be lacking in a Central American base," McCaffrey added, after explaining that Manta, Ecaudor has been very useful, but not enough, while the U.S. airforce base in Soto Cano, Honduras is located at a very high altitude.

Pickering added that Washington will pay special attention to what President Moscoso has to say. "Initial dialogue has revealed that she is looking for a solution that does not involve military personnel," said McCaffrey. However, he added, "we will not be able to carry out detection and vigilance operations without the U.S. Air Force."

For his part, Fernando Manfredo, who participated in negotiations for the Torrijos-Carter treaties, said that the petitions favoring U.S. military presence were written by the same people who opposed the original treaties and who introduced section 1111 to the Article 96-70 on September 27, 1979, which says that the U.S. president must have negotiations with Panama in order "to station" military forces after the year 2000.

Those same people, said Manfredo, during the term of the treaty, presented resolutions in the U.S. Congress that stated that the U.S. president negotiate with Panama to keep the military bases and tried "to make them see that the Canal is in danger" with the drug problems in Colombia or because of Chinese influence on maritime operations in Panama.

According to the president of the Legislative Commission on Foreign Relations, Marco Ameglio, in the United States, there are radical sectors interested in forcing bilateral negotiatins "under pressure conditions" with the Panamanian government, to establish military instalations in Panama. In addition, Ameglio denied accusations by some U.S. sectors that say that Panama's port activity is being controlled by businesses representing Nationalist China (Taiwan), in reference to the transnational company Hutchinson.

Ameglio maintained that port activity in Panama "is no longer a monopoly," because there are three different businesses working on Atlantic coast of the country, one of which is a U.S. consortium. On the other hand, Jorge Gamboa Arosemena, member of the Panama Sovereign Front disagrees with those who who insist on maintaining the U.S. presence in Panama.