From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Panama News Update 12/20/92
Date: 21 Dec 92 22:23:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:1sB6VB10w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-1120615243:000:3223
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 21 14:23:00 1992


Subject: Panama News Update 12/20/92
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
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       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #151, December 20, 1992

PANAMANIAN VICE PRESIDENT QUITS

Panamanian First Vice President Ricardo Arias Calderon resigned
from his post on Dec. 17 in protest of the government's refusal
to make changes in its social and economic programs and to combat
corruption. Arias is president of the Christian Democratic Party
(PDC); he was expelled from his cabinet post (minister of
government and justice) in April of 1991, when Panamanian
President Guillermo Endara forced the PDC out of the three-party
governing coalition and the party joined the opposition. He
retained his position as vice president at the time because as an
elected official, he could not be fired. "With my resignation it
will be very clear that I do not form part of the government,"
Arias told the press. When the assembly accepts his resignation,
Arias will be replaced by Second Vice President Guillermo Ford.
[ED-LP 12/18/92 from AP] In an informal reaction (he admitted
having been surprised by the move), Endara called Arias'
resignation "a political farce." [DLA 12/19/92 from EFE]
 

JUDGE RULES US PRISONS NOT FIT FOR POW NORIEGA

US federal judge William Hoeveler ruled Dec. 8 that deposed
Panamanian ruler Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, convicted of drug
conspiracy charges earlier this year, is a prisoner of war and
may be entitled to special rights when he serves time in a US
prison. The Geneva Convention "delineates some fairly specific
benefits for POWs," Hoeveler said, which are not always met by US
maximum security prisons (such as the one in Marion, IL, where
Noriega is likely to be sent). The Geneva Convention provides for
exercise and the receipt of parcels, for example, and
specifically forbids corporal punishment and the deprivation of
daylight for POWs . Hoeveler suggested that Noriega could file a
writ of habeas corpus if he feels these rights are being
violated. [NYT 12/9/92]
 
Meanwhile, the government of Panama says it plans to extradite
Noriega to face additional charges there, but only after the
general has finished his 40-year sentence in the US. "They want
to continue toying with a political case," Noriega told a federal
court on Dec. 14, "because the government imposed by the [1989
US] invasion needs to give the Panamanian people--who are
starving--bread and circuses in the press." [WP 12/15/92 from AP]

                               -30-

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