George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

concentration camps and jails for some months after the invasion without an arrest
warrant and without specific charges. Trade union rights are non-existent: after a
demonstration by 100,000 persons in December, 1990 had protested growing
unemployment and Endara's plans to "privatize" the state sector by selling it off for a
song to the rabiblanco bankers, all of the labor leaders who had organized the march were
fired from their jobs, and arrest warrants were issued against 100 union officials by the
government. But even the pervasive military presence has not been sufficient to reestablish
stability in Panama: on December 5, 1990, heavily armed US forces were sent
into the streets of Panama City to deter a coup d'etat that was allegedly being prepared by
Eduardo Herrera, the former chief of police. As the popularity of "Porky" Endara wanes,
there are signs that the Bush State Department is grooming a possible successor in
Gabriel Lewis Galindo, the owner of the Banco del Istmo, one of the banks involved in
drug money laundering.
In the wake of Bush's invasion, the economy of Panama has not been rebuilt, but has
rather collapsed further into immiseration. The Bush administration has set as the first
imperative for the puppet regime the maintenance of debt service on Panama's $6 billion
in international debt. Debt service payments take precedence over spending on public
works, public health, and all other categories. Bush had promised Panama $2 billion for
post-invasion reconstruction, but he later reduced this to $1 billion. What was finally
forthcoming was just $460 million, most of which was simply transferred to the Wall
Street banks in order to defray the debt service owed by Panama. The figure of $460
scarcely exceeds the $400 in Panamanian holdings that were supposedly frozen by the
US during the period of economic warfare againmst Noriega, but which were then given
to the New York banks, also for debt service payments.
As far as the integrity of the Panama Canal Treaty signed by Torrijos and Carter, and
ratified by the US Senate is concerned, a resolution co-sponsored by Republican Senator
Bob Dole of Kansas and GOP Congressman Phil Crane of Illinois is currently before the
Congress which calls on Bush to renegotiate the treaty so as to allow US military forces
to remain in Panama beyond the current deadline of December 31, 1999. Since no
Panamanian government could re-open negotiations on the treaty and survive, this
strategy, which appears to enjoy the support of the Bush White House, implies a US
military occupation of not just the old Canal Zone, but of all of Panama, for the entire
foreseeable future.
Thus, on every point enumerated by Bush as basic to his policy-- the lives of Americans,
Panamanian democracy, anti-drug operations, and the integrity of the treaty-- Bush has
obtained a fiasco. Bush's invasion of Panama will stand as a chapter of shame and infamy
in the recent history of the United States.
As this book goes to press, the prosecution is presenting its case in the trial of Gen.
Noriega in Miami, Florida. These proceedings have been a shocking demonstration of the
politically-motivated, police-state frameups that are now the rule in US courts. Noriega
was brought into the United States through a violent exercise in international kidnapping.
In any case, Noriega's undeniable status as a prisoner of war means that under the Geneva