It all started at a regional security conference in Miami, at which Panama was not officially represented. General James Hill, the commander of the US Southern Command, reiterated the long-standing American concern that the Darien is vulnerable to a "narco-terrorist invasion" from Colombia. Hill also noted with approval the Nuevos Horizontes program, which he described as the US military's "first step" in Panama since the bases closed at the end of 1999.

In the customary Washington newspeak, "narco-terrorist" means the leftist FARC rebels, but not the rightist AUC paramilitary. When one refers to a "first step," that leads to the expectation of a second one. Moreover, the United States has for many years said that if Panama ever decides to secure its border with Colombia against armed incursions, American help would be available.

In fact, the US Southern Command is already involved in such limited defense of the Darien as there is, by way of small groups of American soldiers training Panamanian police officers in border patrol and jungle warfare tactics out at Fort Sherman. The people who are trying to convert Sherman to civilian uses aren't very happy about this, but the usual folks who protest any real, proposed or imagined US military presence ha, experience tells us that President Moscoso's word about her government's policy in relation to Colombia and the AUC is not to be trusted. Legislator Mílanes de Lay also has a history of making unsubstantiated allegations that people who disagree with her ideas about the Colombian conflict are in league with the leftist FARC guerrillas. Politically motivated second-hand allegations by such unreliable sources should carry no weight at all in a fair and independent justice system. To the extent that they do,manian territory with some regularity, but less often commits violent crimes here. Their 1993 kidnapping and subsequent murder of three American missionaries was a noteworthy exception --- usually FARC just comes here to rest between battles and buy groceries.

Now if we take General Hill's words by their coded meanings and do some dot-connecting, we might conclude that he called for US military intervention in Panama on the side of the Colombian government and the AUC and against the FARC. But if we just take him at his word, what he said should not be controversial.

What Panama should do about the defense of our border with Colombia, and what sort of US assistance we ought to accept, are legitimate questions for public debate. Although this country should think twice, then think again, before allowing US forces anywhere near the border, the sorts of things that Nuevos Horizontes is doing in the impoverished Ngobe-Bugle Comarca are also the kinds of projects we need to increase security in the Darien.

Raise the standard of living in the border area, and when death squads or terrorists come into the neighborhood it will be more likely that someone will have a home phone from which the police can be called. Provide meaningful job opportunities, and fewer local residents will find drug smuggling, gun running or trading with Colombian insurgents to be such attractive pursuits. Improve the transportation infrastructure, and not only will police be able to respond more quickly to armed incursions, but border area residents will strengthen their economic ties with the rest of Panama and it will affect their ways of thinking.

American officials should drop the use of politically loaded jargon like "narco-terrorist" in order to communicate more effectively. Panamanians should spend less time trying to read foreign tea leaves and pay more attention to what we can do to defend our own country.