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Religious terrorism on the streets of Panama

by Eric Jackson

The photo feature elsewhere in this section was taken at the Saturday parade on Via España, one of four that took place in Panama City over the weekend of November 4 and 5. There I witnessed highly animalistic subversion, from a most unexpected quarter.

It started out with Catholic schoolgirls, who had no doubt been brainwashed by their underground revolutionary nuns.

When the Colegio Maria Auxiliadora contingent passed by the El Carmen Church, a group of what passed for innocent young students twirling batons for their all-girls Catholic school performed the specifically prohibited, extremely dangerous and highly illegal maneuver of throwing their batons in the air. These sly vixens had been well trained in the art of terrorism - not a one of them dropped her baton.

Next came the Colegio Maria Immaculada, with an even bigger horde of outlaw majorettes. They, too, threw their batons in the air in insolent defiance of the Minister of Education's edict. If you look carefully in the center of the picture of the photo above (detail shown on right), you can see the crime in progress.

Next in line were the coed fanatic rabble from the Colegio San Vicente de Paul. If the Institutional Protection Service (the SPI, Mireya's gun-running presidential guards) were now on alert for more baton tosses, these fundamentalist shock troops took them by surprise. Their baton girls performed another specifically banned move, the exceptionally depraved pirouette.

As the public schools passed by, the Ministry of Education's control over their funds served to limit the spread of subversion. No pirouettes, baton tosses or illegal tunes like Ruben Blades's "Buscando America" were forthcoming.

But it was too late. People showed up wearing hats or clothing sporting the Panamanian flag, in violation of

the law as laid down by President Mireya Moscoso. Then, between refrains of (Panameño, Panameño" and lewd pulsating drum rhythms, a public school band had the temerity to play "Stars and Stripes Forever." Now that's not a traditional Panamanian march, nor is it cumbia or tamborito - and thus it was another slap in the face to Education Minister Doris Rosas de Mata (you know - the lady who opened this school year with 65 public school buildings completely unfit for use, and blamed("the bureaucracy").

The police, heavily outnumbered by the vicious fanatics, stood by in stunned silence. The Moscoso administration was again threatened by a breakdown of public order. (But then, I wasn't the only person openly carrying hundreds of dollars worth of photographic equipment at the scene of the crime, and none of us were robbed, nor was anybody assaulted nor any property damaged.)

As I headed home, I noticed that the terrorist influence had spread to municipal workers. One of mayor Juan Carlos Navarro's minions, a member of the street sweeping crew, was wearing a Panamanian flag bandana on her head!

(Eyewitness reports tell of similar illegal baton tosses and pirouettes at the other parades, and a public school band was televised playing that un-Panamanian subversive tune, "La Bamba." The day after the weekend of revolutionary ferment, Education Minister Doris Rosas de Mata complained bitterly about flags of nations other than Panama in the parades, and about spectators wearing American flag apparel. To the extent that the woman wasn't ignored, her complaints were met with snickers.)