Time for the truth

All throughout the Moscoso administration's tenure in office, she and her subordinates have assured Panamanians that the era of US military bases is over, that Panama has nothing to do with Plan Colombia and won’t during her administration, that the American troops have gone. Call it what you will, and try to explain that they never meant to say that if you must, but Mireya has taken a nationalist posture on this issue.

And now we see, through an ad on a US government website, that the US Southern Command will be conducting troop movements and supply missions into remote Colombian airstrips, using privately contracted aircraft based in Panama. It's well nigh impossible to believe that this public offer was made without President Moscoso's approval. And if she did assent, that means that her nationalist card was but a political ploy dealt insincerely from the bottom of the deck.

Now it so happens that plenty of Panamanians, maybe even a majority, would like to see the US military back in Panama. However, there has long been an understanding that after the end of 1999 it would take a public referendum to permit foreign military operations to be staged from Panama again. Those who want to see Panama become the staging area for Plan Colombia should come forward, make their case to the Panamanian people and muster the votes in the Legislative Assembly to put the matter to a vote. No secret policy can be justified when it comes to a question like this, which touches upon fundamental questions of Panama's historical experience, national identity and security interests.

The double dealing about Plan Colombia support flights is only the latest example of the Moscoso administration's lack of candor. Some farmers who don't want to be displaced by dams organized to oppose the canal watershed expansion, and as soon as their protests got much of a public hearing Mireya held a meeting to air bogus charges that Mexican Zapatista guerrillas have invaded Coclesito. An unregistered helicopter dropped out of the presidential entourage into the sea, the president's office gave conflicting accounts, and the next thing we heard Mireya telling the Panamanian people that she won't answer any more questions about it. And on and on.

Even though Panama's government is mostly opaque and one-third of Panama's journalists face prison terms for calumnia e injuria, government by secrecy hasn't worked very well. Instead of winning support, it has nurtured suspicion of and opposition to the president and her programs.

Mireya needs to come clean about her administration's understandings with the United States with respect to Plan Colombia, and convince the Panamanian people that her policies are sound.