Word: panama
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...returns trickle in. The Bush Administration is betting that the cocky Noriega will trip on his own blind determination. As Washington sketchs it, Noriega's supporters will resort to such blatant electoral fraud that Panamanians will take to the streets in furious protest, sparking a brutish response from the Panama Defense Forces. The international outcry will deepen Panama's diplomatic isolation, and eventually the economic and political erosion will reach such dire proportions that the military will abandon Noriega. And then? "We'll let things collapse of their own weight," says a senior Administration official...
...called him Panama's top narcotraficante, indicted him in Florida and vowed to depose him. But General Manuel Antonio Noriega still runs the country, and even though he will not be standing for election on May 7, he looms as the power behind the throne. Polls show that Noriega's handpicked candidate for President, Carlos Duque, trails opposition candidate Guillermo Endara by more than 2 to 1. Yet U.S. officials and opposition leaders are convinced Duque will steal the election. They charge that evidence of government chicanery already abounds: manipulation of voter rolls to keep opponents from the polls, coercion...
...scenario sounds all too familiar -- and implausible. In February 1988, when Noriega was indicted on drug charges, the Reagan Administration expected Noriega to flee in panic. He stayed. Two months later Washington dispatched 1,300 additional troops to U.S. bases in Panama, hoping their very presence would cow Noriega into submission. It didn't. Then the U.S. imposed limited economic sanctions, designed to choke off the country's cash flow. The dollar shortage fell hardest on Panama's middle class, who began to grumble about unreliable American allies. That allowed Noriega to rally support inside as well as beyond Panama...
...election proves a sham, the U.S. will have to seize the opportunity to bring international pressure to bear on Noriega. "At a time when the world is having free elections, including the Soviet Union and Poland, Panama is not," says Richard Lugar, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "You need to make Noriega pay." To show its disapproval, the U.S. could restrict visas issued to pro-Noriega Panamanians, refuse to recognize the newly seated government, and turn away any ambassador sent to Washington by the Duque administration. The Administration wants to tighten sanctions, but further economic deterioration might...
What happened to those glorious days of yesteryear, when California produced Red-baiting Richard Nixon, tap-dancing George Murphy, and the diminutive, tam- o'-shanter-wearing S.I. Hayakawa, who said of the Panama Canal, "We should keep it; we stole it fair and square"? Or, for that matter, the Gipper? On the liberal side, there was Jerry Brown, promoter of Zen politics and Spaceship Earth. Bill Schneider, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, blames Governor Moonbeam for starting the trend away from trendy. "Brown singlehandedly is responsible for the election of at least two of the most boring politicians...