Panama's Would-Be President

By Jill Smolowe

The ceremony was rich with symbolism, but the circumstances were awkward, to say the least. Shortly after U.S. troops began to move, a new government was inaugurated with the aim of restoring democracy in Panama. The swearing-in took place at Fort Clayton, a U.S. military base, with only a few Panamanians present. After the new President, Guillermo Endara, and his two Vice Presidents, Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderon, took their oath of office, they remained at the base for 36 hours.

Endara's first words to his countrymen on Wednesday were broadcast not by Panamanian radio, which was still controlled by Noriega's forces, but by Radio Impacto in Costa Rica, which had taped him by telephone. On Thursday the new President, under the protection of American soldiers, left the base for his first speech to the National Assembly. He pledged to lead "a government of reconstruction and reconciliation," but by then his fledgling regime distinctly bore the label "Made in U.S.A."

With that inauspicious start, an unseasoned politician inherited a nation in the midst of chaos. A 250-lb. labor lawyer with little political experience before he ran for President in last May's aborted election, Endara must rebuild a society that was seriously damaged by U.S. economic sanctions, then savaged by invasion and ravaged by looters. His support comes mostly from the white business and professional classes in Panama City; he must win over the darker-skinned Panamanians of the barrios and the countryside -- those who felt emboldened and empowered by Noriega's populist anti-Yanqui tirades.

Endara will have to establish his legitimate claim to the Panamanian presidency over Francisco Rodriguez, whom Noriega picked after calling off the election last May. Rodriguez urged Panamanians to resist the U.S. troops, then disappeared. Endara had little international support last week, except from the U.S. Neither the United Nations nor the Organization of American States would accept his ambassadors.

Most foreign experts agree that Endara, the candidate of an eight-party anti-Noriega alliance, won the May presidential election over Carlos Duque. Noriega declared that election null and void, and in the ensuing violence, Endara, Calderon and Ford were beaten by the pro-Noriega vigilante groups known as Dignity Battalions. Endara embarked on a two-week hunger strike to protest Rodriguez's subsequent appointment. After last October's failed coup attempt against Noriega, Endara went into hiding. "Nobody doubts ((his)) courage," says a senior U.S. official, "but it's a lot easier to get yourself beaten up than to put a country together from scratch."

Endara might have an easier time if he were starting from scratch. His biggest challenge is to obtain the loyalty of the 12,000-strong Panama Defense Forces, a militia created and nurtured by Noriega and bent on its own survival. As the nation's police force, the P.D.F. will be essential to maintaining order. But given the army's continuing loyalty to Noriega and the rampant corruption within the officer corps, it is a breeding ground for future plots against any civilian government.

Last week few soldiers responded to an American offer to pay $150 for each surrendered weapon. Some of those troops may decide they have little to lose by committing to a protracted guerrilla fight. Part of Noriega's success stems from his ability to convince his troops that he alone represents their best interests and that the P.D.F. would be eviscerated if the opposition ever came to power. Throughout the presidential campaign and during the October coup attempt, Endara insisted that he did not want to purge the armed forces, only Noriega.

At week's end the U.S. announced that Eduardo Herrera Hassan, a former P.D.F. colonel, would be returning to Panama. He was the Pentagon's colonel of choice to lead a 1987 coup attempt against Noriega, an effort that never got off the ground. While Pentagon brass emphasized that Endara would select his own P.D.F. chief, they assume that Herrera will get the post.

The Dignity Battalions, which consist of 8,000 or so armed civilians, are already hampering the new government. Whether by Noriega's design or their own initiative, the goon squads mounted a dirty campaign last week, looting stores and firing upon neighborhoods. Formed last year as civic patrols, the "Dig Bats," as they are commonly known, were recruited from those with lower-class and rural backgrounds similar to Noriega's. They owe both their weapons and their livelihood to the deposed dictator. Some of them may also owe Noriega their freedom; by several accounts, many are convicted criminals who were released from jails in exchange for signing up.

Every way Endara turns, he faces institutions polluted by Noriega's influence, from the banks that laundered drug money to the National Assembly, in which 510 handpicked legislators did the general's bidding. Noriega leaves behind a legacy of ruthlessness, amorality and corruption. The Bush Administration is counting on the long-building revulsion against Noriega and on discontent with the battered economy to give the Endara government the opportunity for reform. The release of $400 million in Panamanian funds impounded in the U.S. will make a good start, and Washington promises a "major" aid program to help Panama rebuild from the estimated $1 billion in damage sustained by the economy and infrastructure as a result of the invasion. But just as George Bush's military commitment is open-ended, the economic burden could prove far more costly than anyone has anticipated.

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira/Washington and John Moody/San Jose