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He's wanted by the USA for terrorism

Pedro Miguel González picked

to head the National Assembly

by Eric Jackson

Deputy Pedro Miguel González (PRD-Veraguas) has been chosen by his colleagues in the National Assembly to head the legislature for its 2007-2008 session. In secret balloting at the assembly's September 1 organizational meeting, he got 50 of the 76 votes cast by the 78 legislators. That means that he received several votes from opposition deputies, as the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) holds 44 seats and its Partido Popular allies two. It’s a problem for the US government because González is wanted for allegedly killing a US soldier in a 1992 drive-by shooting here in Panama.

The September 1 assembly vote was delayed nearly two hours as representatives from the US Embassy met with legislators to try to derail González’s election. On the American side there were warnings that the move would likely kill the chances of congressional ratification of the US-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, a free trade deal that has been ratified by Panama but must be approved or rejected by the US Congress this month under the fast track trade negotiation rules. It is believed that the vote in the US House of Representatives was going to be close even before this issue arose. On the Panamanian side there was a lot of nationalistic rhetoric about this country’s right to pick its own leaders without foreign interference.

In his speech to the legislature after being selected its president, González said that if his position threatens US-Panamanian economic relations, he will step down. Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro said that relations with Washington were “fluid,” but predicted that the free trade pact would be ratified by the United States.

González is wanted by US authorities on a terrorism warrant stemming from a 1992 drive-by shooting in Chilibre that killed US Army Sergeant O. Zak Hernandez. Under US law the murder of a US citizen anywhere in the world can be prosecuted in the United States under federal terrorism statutes. González is charged with first degree murder, conspiracy to murder and attempted murder of another soldier who survived the attack. If appehended by American authorities, tried and convicted, he could get the death penalty.

The slaying took place on the eve of former US President George H. W. Bush's planned triumphal visit to Panama in an election year some two and one-half years after the invasion he ordered. The shooting and protests that sent Bush fleeing with tear gas in his eyes marred the planned campaign photo-op and was one of the turning points in a campaign that led to his defeat later that year by Bill Clinton.

González was a fugitive for several years, but ultimately turned himself in and was tried for murder before a jury of Panamanian government employees in 1997. He was acquitted, but the US government has never accepted the verdict and maintains a warrant for his arrest under a law that provides for the death penalty for any act of terrorism anywhere in the world in which a US citizen is killed.

At the trial there were alibi witnesses placing González on the University of Panama campus when the incident happened and other witnesses placing him at or near the murder scene. However, none of the witnesses for either side were so unbiased and in such a good position to positively identify Gonzáles as to be completely convincing. The key piece of physical evidence was a Kalashnikov rifle found at González's sister's house: the FBI crime lab said it was the murder weapon, the PTJ crime lab said it wasn't the murder weapon and experts from Scotland Yard said it couldn't be proven one way or the other.

After the legislature made its choice the US State Department released the following press statement:

The United States is deeply disappointed that the Panamanian National Assembly elected Pedro Miguel Gonzalez-Pinzon from among all its members to be Assembly President.

Gonzalez and others have been indicted in the United States on charges including first degree murder, conspiracy to murder, and attempted murder of a US national in the killing of US Army Sergeant Zak Hernandez-Laporte and the attempted murder of US Army Sergeant Ronald T. Marshall in an assault near Chilibre on June 10, 1992. There is an outstanding arrest warrant for Gonzalez.

The United States wants those responsible for the murder of Sergeant Zak Hernandez-Laporte and the attempted murder of Sergeant Ronald Marshall to face justice.

In the following days US pressures and local rumors about whether or not González would resign continued, with the assembly president saying very little, his predecessor in that post Elias Castillo telling La Prensa that any decision of that sort would be up to González alone. Meanwhile, the opposition parties criticized the selection, with former President Guillermo Endara characterizing both the legislature’s choice and González’s contingent offer to resign “a ridiculous show.”

The issue also became a fault line within the PRD, with former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares and his supporters arguing that the González choice is an indication that President Martín Torrijos has lost control of the party. One prediction making the rounds in PRD circles, which may be sincere or may be posturing, is that if González is forced to step down the ruling party’s legislative caucus will split between Torrijos and Pérez Balladares supporters over the subject of his replacement. The party is usually very disciplined, but during the Moscoso years defections within the PRD caucus cost it control over the legislature.

Meanwhile in the United States a reaction has been building in the press and in Congress.

A Dallas Morning News editorial warned of the risk of a free trade agreement with Panama, arguing that "the ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party --- which backed former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega --- apparently wants to set a new tone of defiance and mockery" and that "Congress should be skeptical about signing a free-trade accord with a country whose scorn and resentment is so evident."

In Washington, the political periodical The Hill reported that the González appointment may cause problems for the US-Panama free trade deal in the US Senate, where it had long been presumed to be assured of easy passage. But on the House side, where the vote has long been expected to be closer, Ways and Means Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) has been trying to decouple the González issue from the free trade vote, arguing that US objections to Panama's choice of a legislative president is a matter for the State Department rather than Congress.

US-Panama relations turn for the worse with González's election to head legislature
Panamax 2007 naval maneuvers

Torrijos shuffles cabinet, militarizes Ministry of Government & Justice

Saúl Méndez faces charges, avoids jail despite prosecutor's maneuvers

Noriega losing fight to avoid extradition to France

Mireya gets impunity for taking $1000 per day in public funds for clothes and jewelry
Panama News Briefs