Panama's Post-invasion Blues
Panama's Post-Invasion Blues
by Eric Jackson
The U.S. invasion, which carne in the wake of over two years of economic sanctions, left about one-third of Panamanians unemployed and thousands homeless. Promises to alleviate the situation remain unfulfilled and for many Panamanians the painful reality of foreign occupation has begun to overshadow the bad memories of the deposed Noriega regime. Whereas the invasion itself saw relatively little resistance from a divided Panamanian public, discontent with the U.S.backed regime is now growing.
Those left homeless by the invasion have found little reprieve from their situation. Less than one-quarter of those whose homes were destroyed in the buming of Panama City's slum neighborhood of El Chorrillo have been housed behind the razor wire of the U.S. Armed Forces Southem Command's (Southcom's) refugee camp. This camp, located in an airplane hangar at Albrook Air Force Base, squeezes families into 8-by-10 foot canvas-walled cubicles.
While the rubble of El Chorrillo has been completely bulldozed, even those who can produce deeds to the land upon which their ruined homes stood are not allowed to retum. El Chorrillo refugees have been told by government officials that they will be given $6,500 per family. "The Tropic Times," Southcom's official newspaper, also reports this figure but puts the number of displaced families who stand to receive such a benefit at 1800, well under half of those left homeless.
Such a sum is entirely inadequate to build a house in Panama City. And given the capital's current shortage of rental units, apartments are simply not available at any price for the refugees. To protest their plight, the refugees from El Chorrillo have twice blocked the Bridge of the Americas, which spans the Pacific entrance to the canal.
Some refugees have set up shanties, some of which have been attacked by U.S. troops and Panamanian police under U.S. command. In January, a large shanty town east of Panama city near the country 's international airport at Tocumen was razed. In March, soldiers and police razed another such squatter community near Arraijan, west of the capital. Both Southcom and the Endara government have emphatically rejected the notion of sation for the loss of personal belongings, injuries or deaths of family members caused by the invasion. A Panamanian anti-invasion lawyers group, "Abogados Asociados," has vowed to litigate on behalf of those left homeless in the U.S. courts, pursuant to a provision of the 1977 canal treaties which requires the U.S. military to pay compensation to Panamanians who suffer property damage as the result of American military activities.
U.S. soldiers and Panamanian police also continue to systematically raid poor neighborhoods. They seal off areas with razor-wire barricades and search door-to-door for weapons, drugs, fugitives, undocumented foreign workers and resistance fighters. Since the beginning of March, there have been three such raids into San Miguelito, the sprawling working class barrio on the capital's east side, which is home to some 100,000 people. Other neighborhoods in the capital that have been raided include Obarrio, Viejo Veranillo, Brooklincito and Hollywood. The biggest of these raids, conducted on the night of March 9 in the Pacificside town of Curundu, resulted in 736 arrests. There have also been raids on the Atlantic side in the country 's second largest city. Colón.
Unemployment and attacks on labor also persist in the aftermath of the invasion. Some 4,000 public employees were summarily fired after the invasion. Seniority, severance pay, paid matemity leave, the right of women workers to re turn to their jobs up to a year after giving birth, and other provisions of Panama's labor code have been effectively abolished.
Meanwhile, Panamanian labor unions, many of which had gone on strike against the Noriega regime, have been under attack by the Endara govemment and its U.S. backers. The president of FENASEP (the public employees' union), Hector Aleman, was arrested and detained for a few days by invading U.S. troops, along with several dozen other labor leaders. The govemment has moved to impose a new union executive committee upon SUNTRACS, the Panamanian construction workers union.
The labor movement has responded with protest marches and picket lines. The biggest of these was a labor-sponsored maren of over 700 in Colon to protest political firings and other attacks on labor and to demand disclosure of the locations where the bodies of civilians and soldiers killed in and around Colon during the invasion have been buried. (Though there is one well-known mass grave at Mount Hope near Colon, it is thought to contain no more than one-quarter of those who were killed in Colon province.)
A small armed resistance movement has also arisen inopposition to the occupation army. There are occasional sniper attacks on U.S. soldiers in and around Panama City and a member of the Panamanian police force was killed in a jungle shootout near the Colombian border. In addition, an armed resistance group calling itself the December 20th Movement, or M-20, has taken credit for both a hand grenade attack on a Panama City bar which caters to American soldiers and an Atlantic side helicopter crash that claimed the lives of eleven U.S. troops. Southern Command "spin control" operatives have attempted to portray the grenade attack as the work of drug dealers and the helicopter crash as an accident (critical observers point to the good weather, clear terrain and wide distribution of wreckage to question this version).
M-20 leaflets have warned Panamanians against fraternizing with U.S. soldiers and threatened bodily harm to those found wearing pro-invasion t-shirts and destruction of car bearing pro-invasion bumper stickers. Activists have been arrested in Colón and in David (the country's third largest city, capital of Chiriqui province) for distributing M-20 leaflets.
It has now become evident to Panamanians who had expected a quick economic recovery, that this is not the case. It can be anticipated that, as time passes, economic discontent will translate to more widespread resistance.
U.S. soldiers and Panamanian police also continue to systematlcally raid poor nelghborhoods. They seal off areas with razor-wire barricades and search door-to-door for weapons, drugs, fugltlves, undocumented forelgn workers and reslstance flghters. Since the beginning of Maren, there have been three such raids Into San Mlguelito, the sprawllng worklng class barrio on the capital's east slde, whlch Is home to some 100,000 people.