Word: panama
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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During a weekend jaunt to Mexico City for the annual running of the "Caribbean Classic," Panama's strongman, General Omar Torrijos, ran into a stretch of bad luck. First, the general, who seized power in a coup 14 months ago, lost a bundle on a Panamanian nag that had the nerve to finish fifth in a field of twelve. Then, back in Panama City, a couple of colonels tried to make it a daily double by turning him out of office in a countercoup. The result, within 48 fast-moving hours, was a counter-countercoup, something that not even...
...force that defends, polices and -nowadays-governs the tiny country of 1.3 million. Until problems of pride and suspicions of graft arose, Torrijos had been close to the two rebellious colonels. One of them, mustachioed Colonel Ramiro Silvera, 42, had spent much of his career as Panama's top traffic cop before becoming Torrijos' No. 2 man in the Guardia. The other plotter, popular Colonel Amado Sanjur, 38, was Silvera's chief of staff...
...reshuffled Torrijos' Cabinet, rival Guardia officers prepared to bring their chief back. Next day, word came from Mexico City: 'Torrijos is returning." On that signal, 14 truckloads of Guardsmen roared out of a garrison at outlying Tocumen Airport. Some fanned out over the country, others sped into Panama City and pulled up at the dingy, Victorian Guardia headquarters. After a bit of harmless shooting, Sanjur and Silvera were led off to jail...
Folk Hero. Meanwhile, Torrijos dashed back to Panama-after a fashion. After a long, hopscotch flight back from Mexico in a small plane, Torrijos finally landed by the light of torches at a remote airstrip near David, 300 miles west of Panama City. Then came a triumphant, ten-hour ride into the capital in a fleet of rattletrap buses whose entourage of private cars and cheering campesinos grew at every hamlet...
...realized they had to get big coverage to achieve their main self-proclaimed goal: to show Third World people (the non-whites in America and abroad) that white people were joining them in their fight against white imperialism. The Weathermen talked frequently about how the people of Bolivia and Panama would see pictures of white kids fighting cops and how it would inspire them...