From: World Perspectives <worldpnews@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Panama: Endara referendum rejected
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:23:58 GMT

/* Written  4:23 pm  Nov 19, 1992 by worldpnews@igc.apc.org in igc:worldp.samples */
/* ---------- "Panama: Endara referendum rejected" ---------- */
From WORLD PERSPECTIVES. Box 3074, Madison, WI 53704


PANAMA
 The Panamanian President, Guillermo Endara, said Nov 16 that he
would respect the people's decision to reject the constitutional
reforms voted on the previous day in a referendum. The reform would
have amended the 1972 military constitution adopted by the late
President, General Omar Torrijos.

It was the country's first national poll since US troops invaded
Panama three years ago to oust former President Manuel Noriega, and
install Endara as president.

Among the reforms voted on was the abolition of the army. The
opposition's has called for a a constituent assembly and indicated
that the people have rejected the government's policies. With 92%
of precincts reporting, 54% of voters have rejected the reforms,
while just 32 supported them. The remaining votes were considered
invalid by Panama's Electoral Tribunal. The abstention rate was
especially high, almost 60%.

In a television appearance, President Endara said that the result
of the referendum is clear, and he stressed that didn't mean that
the doors to future reforms were closed. (Spanish Radio 11/16)
===============================================================

The following commentary comes from R. Havana:

 Despite a high rate of abstentionism, Panamanians have  delivered
a resounding "No" to proposed constitutional amendments. The vote
is not only a major political defeat for US-installed President
Guillermo Endara, it is, more importantly, a defeat for those
moneyed sectors who wanted to de-nationalize Panama and convert the
country into a nation with no flag, no army and no sense of
national dignity.

This is another in several recent blows in the region for free-
market reform policy. Of the changes proposed to the pre-amble and
58 articles of the Panamanian constitution, the most controversial
was the reform dissolving panama's defense forces and abolishing
the requirement that any agreement or treaty relating to the Panama
Canal zone must be approved by referendum

These changes would have opened the door to a possible secret re-
negotiation of the Torrijos-Carter treaties and to the powerful
argument that since Panama would have no army it would be incapable
of defending the Panama Canal. As a result, the US would stay in
the canal zone after the Dec 1999 deadline for US troop withdrawal.

One of the proposed changes had to do with the abolition of state
control over public expenditures, the de-regulation cornerstone of
neo-liberal free market thought, which, for example, would mean the
destruction of Panama's national health system. Public education
was also on the chopping block of privatization.

On the political agenda, one of the proposals was aimed at the
right to run as an independent in elections, which would have
strengthened the already immense oligarchic privileges of Panama's
traditional political parties, including Endara's.

However, some 60% of the Panamanian electorate chose to stay home,
a testimony to the intolerable poverty that most Panamanians don't
feel is rooted in the constitution. 

The defeat of the referendum  shows a sound movement is now in the
offing for a constituent assembly, which in turn may cost Endara
his job. That would be the end to a presidential term that began
when he was hastily sworn in on a US military base as US bombs were
falling on his country. (11/16)

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     OTHER NEWS TODAY ON THE SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY WORLDP.NEWS:

Rigoberta Menchu on human rights in Guatemala; El Salvador's
electoral tribunal denies FMLN's status as a party; German
opposition party joins in on immigration limitations.

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