news

On the 24th through the 26th of June President Moscoso went to Washington to meet with George W. Bush and a number of other US officials and talk about a number of subjects. Much of what was said and done has not been publicized and much of the rest was about procedures or intentions, but some concrete results have come out of the meetings to the public’s attention, and some of them are controversial.

While the president was away Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias Cerjak and US Ambassador Linda Ellen Watt signed a bilateral immunity accord, which provides that instead of handing Americans accused of genocide or war crimes over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Panama would give them to the US government in exchange for promises to investigate and prosecute. The agreement, which would apply to civilian Plan Colombia mercenaries as well as to US military personnel, has been condemned by human rights activists.

On the subject of free trade, Bush shot down Moscoso’s attempts to negotiate as part of a Central American bloc, citing Panama’s differences with our neighbors farther up the isthmus. He instead offered, and Moscoso accepted, a bilateral negotiating process toward Panama’s participation in a Free Trade Area of the Americas. In any case, no agreement was on the table, but just a framework for further talks that will take longer than President Moscoso has left in office to bear fruit.

During and coincidental with Moscoso’s visit to Washington there were a number of events and announcements in the military field. Panama and the United States agreed with Chile and Ecuador to hold joint naval, coast guard and police maneuvers in July and August, based on the premise of defending the Panama Canal and the shipping lanes of its Pacific approaches from a terrorist attack. ”They're going to be establishing relationships we'd hope would be long term,” Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Lieutenant Commander Barbara Burfeind told Bloomberg News. A few days after the trip Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, the commander of the US Coast Guard, came to Panama to prepare the war games and discuss maritime security issues.

Moscoso also met with US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and congressional leaders while in Washington. The main concerns of these talks were the situation in Colombia and the possibilities of seaborne terrorist attacks on US ports by ship bombs passing through the Panama Canal.




Also in this section:
Panama News Briefs
On the campaign trail
Colombian Army hinders AUC demobilization
Legislative Assembly session ends
Mireya goes to Washington
Coyote faces death penalty

Back to top