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Protesters at the first vigil against the decrees on August 1.
Attendance doubled at the second protest on August 7.

Torrijos decrees may mark
the end of PRD ascendancy
articles and photos by Eric Jackson

A year ago, the conventional wisdom was that the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) would easily win the 2009 elections and continue to run Panama's public affairs with little real opposition. They still have an absolute lock on the National Assembly and the opposition caucuses are still demoralized, divided and in disarray. Since this past January the PRD's domination of the Supreme Court has been enhanced by new appointments. The ruling party can't be easily dismissed as a contender in next year's voting, particularly as opposition voters seem to be largely split between two candidates, Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, with substantially smaller groups supporting Guillermo Endara or calling for an election boycott.

But meanwhile on the way to the polls, President Torrijos's approval ratings have turned negative, a large majority of Panamanians now believe that the country is on the wrong track, and it seems that the PRD is back to its unshakable historical base of about one-third of the national electorate.

So is this the time to do the unpopular things that the party may not have another chance to do for at least five years, or is it time to rebuild the base ahead of the elections? (Or maybe a bit of both?)

Hatuey Castro, an old foe of the old dictatorship

The decrees

President Torrijos has chosen this time to remilitarize Panama, whose G-2 military intelligence and DENI secret police apparatuses were smashed in the December 1989 US invasion and which by popular consensus and the votes of two successive legislatures constitutionally abolished the military in 1994. He has issued five decrees that reorganize Panama's law enforcement and security services and a sixth document stating "general dispositions" regarding those decrees. The decrees, which may or may not be changed before they are enacted on or before August 31 (the president's decree-making powers lapse when the legislature meets again on September 1), include:

• A decree about directors of the National Police, which provides that police commissioners may be promoted to that post, which might also be filled by civilians possessed of university degrees;

• A decree about the Institutional Protection Service (SPI), which includes the presidential guards, which likewise provides that a uniformed SPI commissioner may be raised to the director's post, which might also be filled by a civilian with a university degree. (Unlike a National Police director, a SPI director also has to have a clean criminal record and may not belong to a political party.) The decree also creates a rank and command structure akin to that of the National Police;

• A decree that creates a National Frontier Service with military discipline, although it also characterizes the force as a part of the police and civilian in character. As with the other armed forces, officers can be raised from the ranks or civilians can be nominated to be directors. This force will get wide-ranging powers, from environmental regulation enforcement to catching illegal immigrants to waging war against Colombians or Costa Ricans, on or near the nation's borders --- or for that matter wherever the president assigns it. If members of this force are accused of crimes, the government will be pledged by law to defend them. Directors may be raised from the rank of commissioner or may be civilians;

• A decree merging the National Air Service and National Maritime Service into the National Aeronaval Service. It provides for military-style discipline and rank as with the National Frontier Service. Unlike some of the other services, this force will not be allowed to use torture. The directors must be promoted from the upper ranks;

• A decree creating the National Intelligence and Security Service (SENIS), reorganizing the National Public Safety and Defense Council and making sundry other dispositions. The new council will be composed of the president, foreign minister, minister of economy and finance, minister of government and justice, minister of the presidency and SENIS director. SENIS will have wide ranging powers to "neutralize" any person, organization or thing declared a threat by the president and, with the consent of a Supreme Court magistrate, will have the power to violate any constitutional right that any individual might have. Its activities will be shrouded in statutory secrecy. It will have the power to take over the functions of many other government agencies, including health agencies in the event of an epidemic (including the power to censor news of any epidemic). The director may be promoted from within the new spy service's ranks or may be a civilian outsider; and

• A statement of "general dispositions" that summarizes the five decrees and sets out a new system for classifying government documents as "secret," "reserved" or "confidential" and thus, for varying periods of years, unavailable to the public.

In the new military-style organizations, the commissioners of the National Police, National Frontier Service, National Aeronaval Service and Institutional Protection Services will be promoted by the top officers of those services. Thus presidential appointments from within the ranks will have to be from lists of three commissioners who would have been appointed as commissioners by military officers rather than civilians.

The reaction

Shortly after the decrees were announced, on July 29, about a dozen people met at the El Trapiche restaurant on Via Argentina to discuss what to do. The main protagonists at the meeting, most of whose participants were veterans of the 1980s Civilista opposition to the Noriega regime, were law professor and mayoral candidate Miguel Antonio Bernal and Angélica Maytín, the leader of Panama's chapter of Transparency International. It was decided to create the Citizens Democracy Network (Red Democracia Ciudadana), put out a call for a protest at the end of the week in the traditional gathering place of the old Civilista movement, in front of the El Carmen Church on Via España, and issues a four-point communique that argued:

1. That the solution to the crime problem is with preventive civic safety measures and not with armed military security measures;

2. The citizen on the street clamors for democratic ways to strengthen dialogue and respect for the laws and the national constitution;

3. The proposal put forth by the tenebrous Norieguista, now Minister of Government and Justice Daniel Delgado Diamente, attempts to remilitarize the safety organizations, to fuse them into institutions that are contrary to the humanization and democratization of civic service, and by concentrating power into the hands of a few put institutionality at risk;

4. The Integral Security proposal, which is neither integral nor secure, has now put the command of all the government apparatuses in the hands of one person.

Achitect and environmentalist Raisa Banfield

On August 1 about 100 people gathered in the church parking lot to register their protests. In the crowd were most of the leading lights of the old Civilista movement. Former La Prensa publisher Bobby Eisenmann and his followers and the former publisher of La Critica and El Panama America, Rosario Arias de Galindo, incarnated a break between the PRD and the print media that had supported the Torrijos administration through most of its term.

The left was not there, nor were any of the opposition political candidates. (Both major PRD presidential hopefuls, Balbina Herrera and Juan Carlos Navarro, are supporting the decrees.)

Hatuey Castro, one of the leaders of the Panameñista Action Movement (MAPA) now and a prominent Civilista back then, told The Panama News that "We can't forget what happened before.... We should arise. We can't afford to live the way we used to live." And indeed, it was an older crowd, driven by memories of horror stories past, with only a few people under 30 present.

Another veteran Civilista, former Comptroller General Rubén Carles, opined that somehow the PRD administration would find a way to finance a new military establishment. "They're going to pay by making cuts in other public services. They're buying arms and don't have equipment for our schools." Carles said that opponents can at least demonstrate against the proposals and noted a positive public reception, but wouldn't go so far as to say that the enactment of the decrees could be blocked.

Bobby Eisenmann was equally appalled, but a bit more optimistic. Asked if it was like reliving a bad dream, he said "Oh, yes, it's very personal. We just can't understand why he would even try the re-initiation of the military." But he called the protest "an initial step" that he expected to be "increasingly massive." He thinks the chances are good to stop the decrees from going into effect, and that if they do and the opposition wins the 2009 elections they will be rescinded.

And President Torrijos himself, whose talents Eisenmann had praised? "It's understandable that he doesn't fear the military people around him --- he was raised that way. But it's not understandable that he would so badly misjudge the Panamanian people."

Miguel Antonio Bernal

Addressing the crowd, Bernal noted that "We protested in the Civilista movement against the abuses of Noriega. The mentality today is practically the same, except that now the name is Daniel Delgado Diamante. We are all called to alert the Panamanian people, to renew the defense of our freedoms."

For the most part, Bernal declined to prophesy: "I don't know what's going to happen, but if we don't react we have worse days coming."

Maytín was one of the few people in the crowd who had been on speaking terms with Torrijos before the decrees, and was probably the only one present when the measures were announced before a select audience. "I heard the proposal in the Presidencia. I asked 'Why is this discussed in the cabinet rather than in the legislature?' They didn't give me an answer."

"We all recognize that there is a public safety problem," Maytín added, "but these measures won't solve it."

There are families that will never forget what happened to their members

President Torrijos calls for selected consultations

By this point in the Torrijos administration, very few social sectors outside the PRD believe in or are willing to participate in his "dialogues." The opposition parties, those labor unions not run by and for the management, the left, the old Civilistas, and media which do not toe the ruling party's line generally stay away from the talks which are derisively characterized as the PRD's conversations between "myself and I." But major business organizations and the churches have been trying to keep channels open to the Torrijos administration, and so were willing to talk. Presidential press secretary Erich Rodríguez Auerbach said that unions, business groups, Transparency International, lawyers' groups, the Ecumenical Council, the opposition parties, the Alianza Ciudadana of civic groups and former ministers of government and justice would be consulted. But Daniel Delgado Diamante said that the proposals were set and definitely would go into effect.

The "consultations" have taken place amidst a general public movement against the decrees. Although he didn't show up at the El Carmen Church, former President Guillermo Endara (who was not invited by the government to comment) stated his opposition to the decrees, telling La Prensa that they're "a movie that we've lived through, and that ends in a military dictatorship." But from Cartagena, where he was at an anti-drug summit, Torrijos retorted to the same medium that international experience in the War on Drugs led the government to conclude that the reforms are necessary.

After a few days' delay the 56,000-strong SUNTRACS construction workers' union --- which was not invited to the dialogue --- alleged that "this plan seeks to legalize political persecution, espionage and the selective assassination of leaders; to encourage the use of hit men, to promote judicial terrorism and to criminalize social protest." From sociologist Marco Gandásegui Jr. and several others came claims that an analysis of the decrees' texts indicates that they were not drafted by someone conversant in Panamanian Spanish --- the two most commonly cited suspected ghostwriters being someone in the Pentagon and President Torrijos's security consultant Julio López Borrero, a Spaniard with a criminal record for illegal wiretapping.

But on the PRD-controlled Panama City council, representantes baited opponents of the decrees for being pro-crime. Rio Abajo representante Javier Ortega accused the critics of "protesting with white diapers against the ghost of the army" when they should be protesting against the crime wave. Delgado Diamante told La Prensa that it would be "irresponsible" to leave the reform of law enforcement institutions to a future administration and denied that the proposals were at the behest of foreign interests. The government and PRD took to the television stations --- which are securely in the hands of their supporters --- to defend the decrees in the talk shows.

The two leading opposition contenders for president, Juan Carlos Varela and Ricardo Martinelli, continued to play the issue cautiously, most likely to avoid being branded as pro-crime. But Varela argued that changes as far-reaching as these should be debated in the legislature, not passed by decree; and Martinelli said the same the next day.

The Torrijos administration called for consultations with the media --- of course ignoring The Panama News and all other English- and Chinese-language news organizations as it always does, but this time pointedly not inviting La Prensa, La Estrella, El Siglo, El Panama America or La Critica. The latter five account for all the country's major Spanish-language print dailies, all of which have criticized his proposal. Three of these, La Prensa, La Estrella and El Siglo, had editorially supported Torrijos through much of his administration and this insult highlighted a major loss of political support for the PRD. In the consultations representatives of the Catholic hierarchy's weekly Panorama Catolico newspaper and its FETV television station argued that Panama doesn't need an intelligence service and the decrees would lend themselves to human rights abuses. Until that point the Catholic Church had been strongly supportive of the Torrijos administration and that shift, in a more than 80 percent Catholic country, does become relevant.

Also participating in the consultations and denouncing the decree were the Panamanian Business Executives Association (APEDE), the National Journalism Council and Transparency International. The Ecumenical Council, the Alianza Ciudadana and a number of current and former legislators argued that the proposals should be discussed by the legislature and amended rather than be enacted by decree.

Some, but not all of the former directors of the National Security Council were invited to the dialogue. Menalco Solís, who wasn't invited, blasted the proposals as an invitation to violations of people's rights. Pablo Quintero Luna, who was invited but declined to attend, instead issued a statement alleging that the decrees are unconstitutional. Also outside the official consultation process, retired Panama Defense Forces General Rubén Darío Paredes and former Major José Hilario Trujillo, who during the dictatorship commanded the old Air Force, joined in the opposition.

Vanguardia Moral legislator Mireya Lasso, whose husband
Menalco Solís once was National Security Council director

The fallout

Will the Panamanian people, especially younger voters who don't remember the 1968-1989 dictatorship, buy the argument that Panama needs secret police and law enforcement organized along military lines because there are international cartels moving cocaine by the multi-ton lot through our territory, or because we have had an alarming crime wave?

In the first instance, probably not. Drug smugglers and dealers are killing their business rivals at a record pace but people who aren't involved are rarely affected and there is no great wave of public demand for this to stop. If more drugs are being seized in Panamanian waters it's because law enforcement measures along other routes have pushed the smugglers back through these parts, and if we want to declare all-out war on this traffic Panama had better be able to afford anti-submarine warfare, as the fabulously wealthy Mexican cartels that currently dominate the routes are using underwater vessels now. 

Plus, there is widespread public skepticism about whether the Torrijos administration really wants to keep drug money or foreign criminals out of Panama in any case. The Torrijos record to date is that any foreign criminal with sufficient funds is welcome here, unless the US government starts making extradition requests.

But along with the drug executions there are teenage gang wars in which innocent bystanders are hurt, killed or burned out of their homes; a rash of home invasion robberies and "express" kidnappings have affected the middle class (including a number of foreigners); and despite all of the video cameras deployed around the capital people feel ever less safe from the eternal muggers and pickpockets. There may be some mileage for the PRD in the "tough on crime" stance if they can convince the public that this is what the decrees are all about.

The ruling party will need all the extra sympathy that "tough guys" can muster. The security decrees have aligned almost all of the political, civic, religious and business leaders who aren't the PRD or their closest allies against the government, and isolated isn't where a political party wants to be when its loyal base is only one-third of the electorate.

Former La Prensa publisher I. Roberto Eisenmann, Jr. gives an interview

The prospects

President Torrijos has his pollsters and will know soon enough how much political damage his decrees will or will not do to his party. Optimists like Eisenmann expect that the president will back down, while pessimists like Bernal fear a repeat of the 1984 PRD election theft, reinforced by an expanded and militarized repressive apparatus. 

There are difficulties between Torrijos and his legislative caucus, which could cause a certain amount of mischief if the president backs part of the way down and sends the proposals to the National Assembly instead of passing them by decree. Moreover, come September 7 the PRD will begin looking ever more toward the winner of its presidential primary for unifying leadership and Torrijos will look that much more like a lame duck.

In any case, can damage now done be repaired by a retreat on this issue? Certainly not all of it. 

Then there's a national strike movement looming, which could be a wild card that might send some business factions back toward the PRD or harden a lot of other Panamanians against them, or a little bit of both. A national strike might be just the occasion for Torrijos to test out the new powers in his decrees and both sides may want to proceed cautiously because neither can very accurately predict how people would react to that.

A Rubicon has been crossed, the hitherto taboo subject of militarism has been raised, and the results of this controversy, even if they are difficult to predict, are likely to be far-reaching.

To read the decrees in their original Spanish, go to http://www.thepanamanews.com/decretos.html

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