Anti-Noriega Strike Proves Partial Success in Panama

PANAMA CITY — Retail stores, banks and other businesses closed progressively throughout the day Monday as a general strike called by opponents of military strongman Manuel A. Noriega proved partially effective in shutting down commerce in Panama’s capital.

The military-backed administration of new civilian President Manuel Solis Palma recognized that the strike was having some impact. In a brief interview, Solis estimated that “60% of businesses are functioning and all transportation (is operating).”

Some Western diplomats said the effectiveness of the strike was greater, that as many as 75% of the businesses had shut down. However, to reporters circulating through the city, that figure seemed high.

Nevertheless, strike organizers appeared pleased and said that it will continue today. “It started out slowly, but we’re very encouraged. Considering that today is payday, it was much better than expected,” organizer Roberto Brenes said.

There were no major incidents of violence reported. One strike leader, Aurelio Barria, was arrested and jostled by police, but he was quickly released. That arrest took place at the Chamber of Commerce, headquarters of the Civic Crusade, a group of business and trade organizations that has led opposition to Noriega’s rule.

At the time of his arrest, Barria, president of the Chamber of Commerce and a prominent member of the crusade, was trying to enter the chamber, which since last week has been surrounded by soldiers. While the arrest was taking place, Solis was visiting the government’s Electoral Tribunal building on an adjoining street corner.

Col. Leonidas Macias, the city’s police chief, was asked why Barria was being arrested. “For being a clown,” Macias answered.

The presence of police and soldiers on the streets was slightly more evident than usual. On some street corners, police stood in pairs, notebooks in hand, apparently jotting down the goings-on along commercial thoroughfares.

A small group of policemen was stationed on 50th Street, a frequent gathering place of opposition supporters. Some merchants who are residents but not citizens of Panama reported veiled threats by soldiers as to their right to stay in Panama.

The strike was called by the Civic Crusade after the dismissal last week of President Eric A. Delvalle, who had been the figurehead civilian chief of state in Noriega’s regime since 1985. Last Friday, the National Assembly ousted Delvalle and named Solis to succeed him after Delvalle tried to fire Noriega as commander of Panama’s 15,000-member Defense Forces. The deposed president has been in hiding since Saturday.

These events have become a rallying point for opponents of military rule in Panama.

Before Monday, members of the Civic Crusade worried that their call for a general strike would go unheeded and that they would be seen as impotent. The crusade had not attempted to organize a shutdown since last October.

Overseas Support Sought

In the minds of crusade leaders, the audience for their action was partly overseas, where they hoped to pick up at least diplomatic and economic support from foreign governments for their cause.

The strike was most effective in Panama City’s middle- and upper middle-class neighborhoods. Electronics and clothing stores along the Via Espana in the city’s financial district had mostly closed down by 2 p.m. Suburban shopping malls were also largely closed and empty.

In poorer neighborhoods, the results were less favorable to the crusade. Along Central Avenue in the old downtown section of Panama City, only about one store in 10 shut down. Few of the small general stores, typical of Latin American neighborhoods, closed their doors.

In some cases, store owners expressed fear of closings.

A Jewish merchant on Central Avenue said that soldiers had entered his fabric shop and, he thought, took too much interest in his resident status in Panama.

Quizzed by Soldiers

“They asked me how long I had been here and if I liked it,” said the merchant, a refugee from Syria who has lived in Panama for seven years. “I got the clear idea they were reminding me I was vulnerable.”

Another store owner, also on Central Avenue, took special precautions by partly pulling down his awnings to appear to be closed, although clients who came in for business were waited upon.

“It is difficult for some of us,” he declared. “We do not necessarily want to be with the government but they can shut us down and loot our stores. Everything would be taken.”

An owner of a Chinese notions and souvenir shop claimed that a self-identified plainclothes government official had threatened him with deportation if he closed.

Besides retail outlets, several industries closed down, including major cement factories, one of the large breweries in Panama City and two soft drink bottlers.

Canal Remained Open

Government offices remained open. So did the Panama Canal, although the protests have begun to seep out of the city in the direction of the strategic waterway.

Throughout the weekend and at least twice on Monday, someone using a clandestine transmitter broke in on a UHF radio frequency used for canal communications to urge workers to slow operations along the waterway, canal officials said.

There were no work slowdowns noted at the canal, the officials added.

The Panama Canal is defended by the United States and operated by a mixed U.S.-Panamanian commission. Panama is scheduled to take over sole operation and defense of the waterway Dec. 31, 1999.

Foreign-owned banks opened Monday, although some permitted their workers to stay home if the employees wanted to support the strike. One international banker said the government has warned him that the bank would lose its license to operate in Panama if it closed for the day. International banking is a mainstay of the Panamanian economy.

The banker, who has lived in Panama for many years, said there was a small run on bank deposits last week. He said that savers were closing passbook accounts and transferring them to checking accounts for ready access.

“The depositors want to be able to get their money quickly from automatic tellers,” the bankers said.

Panama’s government tried to discourage the strike through radio broadcasts, newspaper reports and small shows of force. Radio announcers called strikers unpatriotic and said they were acting at the behest of the U.S. government.

Government-affiliated unions issued a statement warning that businesses that closed would be taken over. Articles in government-run newspapers repeatedly described the crisis as a battle between the United States and Panama. “Either we are a colony or we are sovereign,” said a headline in the government newspaper La Critica.