Free Press in Panama, Creation of

Historical Background

First, allow me to describe the situation in Panama in 1979. We had been living under the military dictatorship of General Omar Torrijos (1929–1981) for eleven years. There were four daily newspapers (all under the regime's control) and two television stations that were indirectly controlled by the regime, as were all radio stations. Political parties had been legally dissolved. “Enemies of the regime” (as anybody with an opposing view was labeled) were killed, “disappeared,” or arrested and expatriated. I, as a businessman critical of the regime and active in intermediate organizations of my sector, was one of the fortunate “enemies,” for after being arrested while driving my children to school, I suffered no more than some roughing up before being put on a military aircraft—with twelve others—and dropped in Guayaquil, Ecuador. There I started the first of what would be two forced exiles of three-and-a-half years each—seven years' exile in total. At this time in Panama's history negotiations over the Panama Canal treaty were starting; Carter was the U.S. president at the time. Once the treaty documents were initialed, President Carter started an uphill battle to have them ratified by the Senate. Votes were hard to come by, and for the “human-rights president,” Panamanian political exiles running around the halls of Congress were very inconvenient. Carter therefore persuaded Torrijos to announce an apertura, or opening, allowing the return of all Panamanian exiles; I was in that group.

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