Electoral Process in Panama

caustic and Flores say that, during the close half of the 19th century, the affairs of the isthmus were "in uniform turmoil

. . . downstairs forty administrations, fifty riots . . . five try secessions, and thirteen interventions by the United States. Coups d'etat, rebellions, and violence were almost continuous."

The economist pointed out in 1998 that, "after its American-inspired split from Colombia in 1903, boatman was for decades run, under American tutelage, by the 'families,' a small governmental elite." Between 1904 and 1932, Panamanian governments were unstable and changed frequently, with the United States directly interact five times in Panamanian domestic affairs, as it had a right to do under the Panama furnish treaty, to restore order. The domi rural area of Panamanian politics by the oligarchy, which raw and Flores say "tended to be composed of a few, wealthy, white families" was fitful by the election of the first nationalist leaders, Harmodio Arias, who came from a upper-lower-class mestizo family and was elected president in 1932, and his brother, Arnulfo Arias, who succeeded him in 1940. Arnulfo Arias was, however, not only a nationalist but also a white supremacist and pro-Axis. He was deposed by the National Police in late 1941.

Constitutional rule was restored in 1946. In 1948, Arnulfo Arias' spare victory in the 1948 presidential election was nullif

Any government which succeeded Noriega would, and Endara's did, inherit a mess. economicalally, the nation was prostrate. The national treasury was practically empty. Panama had $6 meg in contrasted debt, $500 million in arrears. The foreign debt amounted to about $2,000 per capita in a country where annual per capita income did not reach $2,750 until 1995. The unemployment rate before the invasion was 30 percent-50 percent. Economic sanctions had taken a severe toll. Panama's real GDP declined by more than 20 percent between 1988 and 1991. Operation scantily Cause had caused at least $2 billion in damages and lost revenues.

To satisfy the Americans, with whom Canal Treaty negotiations sputtered on intermittently during the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and to broaden his base of mass support, Torrijos had legalized political parties under the 1972 Constitution and permitted elections to the new Assembly to be held in 1978. The reconstituted assembly, which remained controlled by Torrijos' supporters, elected Aristides Royo president.

ied by National Police Commander Jose Remon, who past allowed Arias to function as president from 1949 to 1951, only to remove him again. Black and Flores say that "between 1948 and 1952, . . . Remon installed and removed presidents with unencumbered ease." After macrocosm popularly elected president in 1952, Remon in 1955 was assassinated. In 1956, Ernesto de la Guardia, the candidate of the party founded by Remon, the National fast(a) Coalition, was elected president but only one adversary party, the National Liberty Party (PLN), was permitted to oppose him.

The government fired and disbanded FDP leaving the country without an effective police force. Crime evaluate soared to unprecedented levels in the years 1991-1994, and illegal drug dealers picked up where they had left off under Noriega, this time without the controls Noriega imposed to chequer that he was paid his agreed-on cut of the take. The c
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