1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
ranks to become commandant of the police. Remon
began to convert the national police to a national
guard that was trained in military skills.
As Remon became more powerful, so did his police
force. By 1952 he had been elected president of
the country and had nearly completed the conversion
of the National Police Force to the National
Guard. Remon’s presidency was notorious for
graft and corruption, and in 1955 he was assassinated.
The old oligarchy returned to power and
ruled the country for the following 13 years. During
that period the National Guard that Remon
had created grew in power and influence, until it
was in a position to again directly influence the
conduct of the government (fig. 38). 1
A political crisis developed in 1968 that resulted
in the election of Arnulfo Arias as the
country’s new president. Assuming office he immediately
announced sweeping changes in the
leadership of the National Guard. Having become
extremely powerful over the past decade,
the National Guard promptly removed Arias
from office, established a provisional military
junta, and disbanded the National Assembly
along with all political parties. Throughout the
following year, members of the military junta
maneuvered to gain control of the country.
Omar Torrijos, who was the commander of the
National Guard at the time, was able to consolidate
his power and gain control of the government
after he defeated a coup in 1969. Once in
control Torrijos expanded his political base by
continuing to increase the size of the National
Guard and by preventing the formation of political
parties. He replaced the country’s National
Assembly in 1972 with a National Assembly of
Community Representatives, whose members
were selected by the Torrijos-controlled government
and not by popular vote. 2
Under the guise of reforming the 1972 constitution,
political parties were legalized in 1978, and
Torrijos gave up his position as president. The
perceived softening of Torrijos toward a civilian
government was actually a result of ongoing negotiations
with the Carter administration over the
return of the Panama Canal to the country of
Panama. Torrijos knew that the US Congress
would not ratify a treaty with a Panamanian government
that was not at least outwardly democratic.
The National Assembly elected Aristides
Royo as president, but political power remained in
the hands of Torrijos. Presidential elections were
set for 1984, and Torrijos established his own political
party—the Democratic Revolutionary Party
(PDR)—to prepare for them. 3
Torrijos was killed in an airplane crash on 31
July 1981, and Panama was plunged into a series
of crises over the next two years. Most of the turmoil
came from within the National Guard, with
the recently formed political parties too weak to
exert much influence. Out of the internal National
Guard power struggle, Manuel Noriega emerged
as dictator of Panama. Noriega had been a longtime
protégé of Torrijos and relied upon corruption,
repression, and the National Guard to remain
in power. Noriega continued to expand the
National Guard, and he created the Panamanian
Defense Force (PDF), a combination of National
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COLOHBIA
Figure 38. Map of Panama (Source: AU Library, Maps and Charts Division, Maxwell AFB, Ala.)
318