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### Viewing cable 07PANAMA1052, PANAMA POST: EDITION II

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
07PANAMA1052 | 2007-06-21 20:55 | 2011-05-28 00:00 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Panama

`

    VZCZCXYZ0014
    OO RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHZP #1052/01 1722055
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    O 212055Z JUN 07
    FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0665
    INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
    RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
    RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
    RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
    RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
    RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 001052

    SIPDIS

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2017
    TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER KCRM PM
    SUBJECT: PANAMA POST:  EDITION II

    REF: PANAMA 1035

    Classified By: POLCOUNS Brian R. Naranjo.  Reasons:  1.4 (b) and (d).

    -------
    Summary
    -------

    ¶1.  (U) Welcome to edition II of the Panama Post!  We hope
    that our readership will enjoy the following items and that
    they will enhance your understanding of Panama's political
    environment:

    -- Terrorist possible next National Assembly President;
    -- Balbina Herrera may be Revolutionary Democratic Party
    (PRD) nominee for president;
    -- Catholic prelate calls for social justice; and
    -- Paving the way to another PRD victory.

    --------------------------------------------- ------
    Terrorist Possible Next National Assembly President
    --------------------------------------------- ------

    ¶2. (C) Pedro Miguel Gonzalez would be the next President of
    the National Assembly, PRD National Executive Committee (CEN)
    Member Samuel Buitrago said on June 20, confirming rumors
    that the Panama Post has been hearing.  Ineligible for a visa
    for his terrorist activity, Gonzalez is wanted in the U.S.
    for the 1992 murder of U.S. serviceman Zak Hernandez.
    Buitrago acknowledged that the PRD CEN had discussed and
    greenlight Gonzalez's candidacy.  Asked by the Panama Post
    how, of the forty plus PRD deputies, the PRD could settle on
    a known terrorist as its next National Assembly President,
    Buitrago answered, "We have our business; you have your
    business."

    ¶3. (C) Comment:  Rumors regarding the prospect that Gonzalez
    would be the next President of the National Assembly have
    been circulating and are now becoming more insistent.  In our
    on-going outreach to GOP officials and PRD leaders, post will
    underscore that selection of Gonzalez for this post would be
    seen in a very negative light, note that this development
    would have a negative impact on our bilateral relationship,
    and urge that a wiser choice be considered.

    --------- -------------------------------------------
    Balbina's Star Rising for PRD Presidential Nomination
    --------- -------------------------------------------

    ¶4. (C) Current Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera would
    likely win the PRD's presidential nomination, Buitrago told
    the Panama Post on June 20.  Buitrago said that current First
    VP and FM Samuel Lewis was going nowhere in the PRD's own
    internal polls, barely beating the polls' margin of error.
    Lewis' reputation as the darling of the PRD elite was
    eroding, Buitrago commented, as the party "elite and
    oligarchy" (e.g., the powerful Motta clan) were accepting and
    even championing in private Herrera.  Presently, Herrera was
    running about three percentage points behind current Panama
    City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, Buitrago asserted.  Herrera,
    he argued, had wider appeal across the PRD spectrum and was
    perceived as being a more of a team player, a critical
    concern amongst the rank and file of Panama's largest party.
    In contrast, Navarro was seen as selfish and likely to rely
    upon and govern with only those PRD members who figured
    prominently within his clique.  Buitrago predicted a
    three-way race in the PRD primaries for the presidential
    nomination between Herrera, Navarro, and former President
    Ernesto "El Toro" Perez Balladares that Herrera would handily
    win.

    ¶5. (C) Comment: The Panama Post has heard rumors for months
    that Herrera was contemplating a presidential run.  Herrera
    herself has been decidedly coy and aloof, both in private
    comments to the Panama Post and in public.  Though Navarro
    polls the best of all the PRD presidential pre-candidates,
    there is a wide perception that he is reaching his limit and
    will be held back by high negatives.  Herrera is widely
    admired for her adept political skills, especially at the
    grass-roots level.  While the writing may be on the wall that
    Torrijos' preferred successor Lewis is not getting any
    political traction, the Panama Post does not discount the
    prospect that Torrijos -- in typical fashion -- will anguish
    over whether to shift his backing to Herrera.

    ----------- -------------------------------
    Archbishop: "No equality or social justice"
    ----------- -------------------------------

    ¶6. (U) "We need a development policy that achieves equality
    and social justice," Panama's Archbishop Jose Dimas declared
    during his June 17 homily before 15,000 faithful assembled at
    Panama City's Roberto Duran sports complex for the
    thirty-seventh annual Eucharistic Mass.  In his unexpectedly
    political comments, the prelate lauded Panama's exceptional
    economic growth in recent years but -- in what has been
    widely interpreted as a jab at the Torrijos Administration --
    said that they had to lead to improvements in the quality of
    life for all Panamanians.  The Archbishop also, among other
    things:  (1) called for a law that favored the users of
    public transportation; (2) urged GOP authorities not to rest
    until justice was done regarding he diethylene glycol
    poisoning case; and (3) rejected any increase in the price of
    the basic food basket and fuel prices.  Taken by surprise,
    governing PRD representatives on hand for the mass --
    including, Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera, Minister of
    Public Works Benjamin Colamarco and National Assembly
    President Elias Castillo, both of whom were seated in the
    front row -- brushed aside the explicit criticism of the
    government and said that these were promises that the PRD,
    the government and the Panamanian people were committed to
    fulfilling.  Opposition politicians -- most notably former
    President Guillermo Endara -- piled on to Dimas' comments to
    more directly criticize the Torrijos Administration.

    ¶7. (SBU) Dimas uncharacteristically did not shy away from
    hitting the GOP on three hot political topics.  Siding with
    public transportation users, Dimas' remarks were a slam PRD
    deputies who, acting to protect the interests of public
    transportation providers, have been stalling reform
    legislation despite the enormous out-cry in the wake of a
    horrific October 2006 bus fire.  Perhaps sensing GOP
    uneasiness with where the diethylene glycol poisoning case
    would lead (some speculate that it might topple Minister of
    Health Alleyne), Dimas added his voice to others calling
    justice to be done.  Finally, touching upon the rising cost
    of living, Dimas addressed the most salient political issue
    currently on voters minds. Responding to the opposition's
    pile-on to Dimas' remarks, Presidential Communications
    Secretary Erich Rodriguez Auerbach acknowledged on June 20

    SIPDIS
    that the archbishop had "boxed the ears of all Panamanians."
    Seeking to spread the blame, Rodriguez asserted that all
    Panamanians, not just the PRD, needed to heed the prelate's
    words.

    ------ ------------------
    Paving the Way to Victory
    ------ ------------------

    ¶8. (U) Former Noriega-era Dignity Battalion Commander and
    current Minster of Public Works (MOP) Benjamin Colamarco is
    in the midst of managing a road building boom in Panama City
    timed to conclude three to five months before the May 2009
    elections.  In addition to extending the Southern Highway
    (Corredor del Sur) around Panama City by building out into
    Panama Bay, MOP is launching work on nine vehicle bridges and
    numerous other road projects to alleviate pressure on Panama
    City's congested and overburden roads.  Opposition
    politicians, however, assert that the Torrijos Administration
    is using state coffers for its own political benefit.
    Democratic Change (CD) Political Committee President Roberto
    Henriquez, Movement of Liberal National Republicans
    (MOLIRENA) President Gisela Chung, and Patriotic Union (UP)
    co-President Anibal Galindo have rejected the PRD's use of
    the roads projects for political proselytizing.

    ¶9. (SBU) Comment:  The PRD has a long history of paving
    Panama to win votes and support.  Sitting on a significant
    budget surplus, the Panama Post anticipates a mini-boom in
    MOP projects -- in addition to canal expansion project being
    carried out by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) -- over the
    next eighteen to twenty-four months leading up to the May
    2009 elections.

    EATON

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