Word: panamas
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Firecrackers exploded over Panama City last week as the main opposition newspaper, La Prensa, prepared to resume publication for the first time since it was banned six months ago. After a government prosecutor returned the building's keys to the paper's owners, supporters waved white handkerchiefs and shouted with joy. "This is a victory of the international press," declared Publisher Ruben Carles, who said the reopening was due to foreign and domestic "pressures" on the government...
...plan to get him to hand over power to a civilian government. Drafted with U.S. backing by Jose Blandon, a trusted Noriega ally, the proposal called for the general to retire by spring and for free elections to be held in 1989. Noriega responded by having Blandon fired as Panama's consul general in New York City...
...general's reaction dismayed White House officials. Blandon drew up his plan last fall after mass protests swept Panama, prompted by charges that implicated Noriega in murder, drug smuggling and election fraud. According to Gabriel Lewis, Panama's former U.S. Ambassador, Noriega had asked Blandon for a blueprint that would let him retire without facing U.S. reprisals. Lewis arranged an October meeting between Blandon and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, who stressed Washington's desire for democracy in Panama...
Blandon has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Miami that is looking into charges that Noriega extracted protection money from drug traffickers based in Panama. Until last week, according to U.S. Government sources, some federal investigators felt they lacked sufficiently compelling evidence to indict Noriega. Blandon's testimony could strengthen their case -- especially if, as D'Amato says, the former consul general can provide documents and tape recordings to back up many of his allegations...
Though the majority of today's cruise-line companies are U.S.-based, their profits do little to ease Washington's foreign trade deficit, since few of their ships fly the American flag. Carnival's ships, for example, are registered in Panama and Liberia. Most liners carry such flags of convenience for economic reasons: the companies can avoid U.S. corporate taxes and hire low-paid foreign crews. That strategy has its drawbacks. Under an 1886 federal law, foreign vessels are not permitted to transport people between ports in the U.S. A foreign ship that sails from New York City, for example...