Panama’s a country in Latin America, a passageway between North and South America. It consists of 60% Mestizos and Mulattos (Latino groups), 20% black, 10% indigenous, and 5% white. It has a colonialist history and has been quite unstable and poor in the 20th century like a lot of Latin American countries. U.S. intervention in Panama goes back a long way, with 16 interventions occuring in 1856-1989.
From 1903, U.S. troops were permanently stationed in Panama. The U.S. also gained control of ten miles of the Panama Canal with the signing of the Panama Canal treaty in 1903.
In 1968, Colonel Omar Torrijos became the head of a nationalist military governement after overthrowing a government of wealthy landowners. In 1977, Torrijos negotiated new treaties with the U.S. These treaties were an agreement that the Panama Canal would be handed back to Panama by the year 2000, and that U.S. military bases would also be gone from Panama by then. The treaties were signed by Torrijos and U.S. President Carter.
Torrijos died in 1981, and General Noriega who had worked underneath Torrijos became head of the Panamanian Defence Forces in 1983. This government in Panama was never democratic, with Torrijos coming to power due to a coup and Noriega rigging elections and restricting political freedom. However at the same time they had expanded education, health, and rural development programs, and made progressive labour laws.
Noriega began to infuriate the U.S. in the 80’s by refusing to allow Panama to be used by the US as a base from which to invade other Latin American countries. At the same time many politicians which were in power in the U.S. in this time believed that Carter should never have signed the 1977 treaties, and wanted to continue U.S. military bases past the year 2000, and wanted to keep use of the Panama Canal.
In 1987, the U.S. began to impose economic sanctions on Panama. This included freezing $56 million of Panamanian money that was in U.S. banks, and refusing to pay money the U.S. owed to Panama for use of the canal, as well as restricting commercial trade with Panamanians. Altogether, the techniques the U.S. used caused Panama to lose $500 million, and their GDP to contract 27%.
Politicians in the U.S.A. began to talk about Noriega’s alleged connection to illegal drug dealing, and claimed that this would be a valid reason to invade Panama, and abduct Noriega to face drug charges in the U.S. Any civilians killed due to this action would be “collateral damage”. In December 1989, a U.S. Marine Lieutenant was killed. The U.S. government used it as the final excuse to invade Panama, claiming American lives were at stake. During the invasion, the U.S. made little effort to protect American lives, let alone the disregard for Panamanian lives. An estimated 1000 to 4000 Panamanians were killed. 20,000 were left homeless. Some areas were bombarded, especially poor areas where nationalist sentiments were high. In the poor neighbourhood of El Chorrillo, whole blocks were levelled.
24,000 U.S. troops were used in the invasion. In contrast, the Panamanian Defence Force (PDF) consisted of about 15,000-16,000, with nowhere near the same level of technological ability or training. The Panamanians never had a chance to actually win, and the invasion was over in four days. The U.S. used a vast artillery of weapons, and struck in the middle of the night of December 20.
The U.S. made arrests of Government figures and members of the PDF after the invasion. It also arrested and harassed trade unionists, journalists, students, and many others. Doctors who were on duty during the attack were intimidated or arrested so that they would not reveal the extent of the injuries and deaths.
After the invasion, joblessness increased, and mass firings occurred. Guillermo Endara was installed as President. He was sworn in on a U.S. military base.
Read about Panama:
Sources
Independent commission of Inquiry on the U.S. Invasion of Panama, The U.S. Invasion of Panama- The Truth Behind Operation ‘Just Cause’, 1991, South End Press, Boston
Christina Jacqueline Johns and P. Ward Johnson, State Crime, The Media, and the Invasion of Panama, 1994, Praeger Publishers, Westport
Peter Huchtausen, America’s Splendid Little Wars, 2003, The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America
Margaret E. Scranton, The Noriega Years- U.S.-Panamanian Relations, 1981-1990, 1991, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder
Yaacov Y. I. Vertzberger, Risk Taking and Decisionmaking- Foreign Military Intervention Decisions, 1998, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California
