Panamá Update

November 2001

• Panama Calls For U.S. Chemical Cleanup

March 2000

• Washington's "Aid" Package for Colombia
• Moscoso Government Places Low Priority on Military’s Explosive Legacy

November 1999

• Road to Nowhere: An Update
• "Assertive Engagement:" Panama's Security and U.S. Plans
• New Government Tries Out its Legs
• Bones on Former Military Base Provoke New Question
• International Grassroots Summit: Environmental Bill of Rights for Countries Hosting Military Bases
• Agent Orange Affects Soldiers' Health
• Canal Invations Y2K

July 1999

• Explosive Wounds Worker in Rio Hato, Panama
• President Mireya
• Republicans Push Pentagon to Stay at Howard Air Base
• Guerrilla intrusion sparks panic, political flap
• Venezuela's Chavez says 'no' to drug war overflights (but not to war)
• New Revelations on Base Contamination

April 1999

• Congressional Reps and Religious Leaders Press Pentagon for Disclosure and Explosives Cleanup
• "Public" Transportation: Southern Highway under fire
• Election Time in Panama - Many Promises
• Yanquis Going Home
• Air Bridge Denial: The Success of a Failure
• Land Disputes in Arimae
• United States Leaves a Custom-Made Canal

December 1998

• Sneaking Off into the Night: Panama and Army Face Off on Explosives Problem
• Presidential Politics: Will There be a Torrijos Dynasty?
• Privatizing Government: Panama Goes on a Selling Spree
• Congress Dreams of Headlines: Drug Prices Soar as Thousands Die throughout the Hemisphere

September/October 1998

• Counter-Drug Center Negotiations Collapse
• Panamanians reject Pérez Balladares' reelection bid
• "The Poor Subsidize Cabinet Ministers": Housing Scandal on former U.S. Bases
• Prostitution in Panama
• Air Force Radar Site Becomes Bird-watching Post
• Major Report on Chemical Weapons in Panama

June/July 1998

• Reelection Fever
• Counter-Drug Base Still on Hold
• News Briefs
• Panama and Puerto Rico on the Road Together
• Bananas, 1998
• Displaced in the Darién
• Action Appeal: Killing Fields Clean-up: One Step Forward,
  Two Steps Back...?

• SPECIAL REPORT: Test Tube Republic
  A Report on Chemical Weapons Tests in Panama and U.S. Responsibility

March 1998

• Military Base Negotiations Stalled
• The Drug War Goes On
• Mortal Legacy?: U.S. Reveals Plan for Firing Ranges
• Impressions from a Trip to Panama
• Human Rights in the Cross-hairs in Panama
• Organizations Demand Sovereignty and Independence
• International Peace Delegation to Puerto Rico Denounces War Preparations (Press Release, 2/14/98)
• Banana Workers Strike
• Nuclear Shipment Transits Canal

December 1997

• Military Base Negotiations Reaching Deadline
• Violence Escalates in Colombian Border Region
• Army's Tropic Test Center Secretly Negotiates to Stay in Panama
• Campaign News
• Trial for "Just Cause"
• New Books on Panama in Spanish
• G.I.'s Gassed in World War II
• Communities Resist Invasion of Gold Mines

• SPECIAL REPORT: One Flag, One Territory
  An International Delegation to Panama, July 27-August 3, 1997

Summer 1997

• Formal Talks for "Counter-Drug Center" Announced
• Depleted Uranium and Nerve Gas: "A Hornet's Nest"
• Editorial: Persistence and the Road Ahead
• Peasants Resist Evictions in Bocas del Toro
• Environmental Injustice on U.S. Bases in Panama
• Panama Hopes to Create a "City of Knowledge" Where U.S. Forces Once Ran the Canal Zone
• School of Americas Converting to Hotel
• Colombia and Panama Deploy 6,200 Troops and Police to Border Area
• Strikes and Protests Shake Panama

Spring 1997

• Studies of US Ranges in Panama Reveals Explosive Problems
• Troop Talks Lack Transparency
• Panama Campaign News
• Wave of Prison Guard Violence
• Ngobe Reserve Falls Short of Hopes
• Action Alert: Panama Deports Colombian Refugees

Winter 1997

• "Multilateral Counter-Drug Center" or Disguised U.S. Military Base?
• The Ngobe-Buglés at the Crossroads
• Panama in the World Trade Organization and Tariff Agreements
• President Fires Striking Air Controllers
• Panama Campaign Update
• U.S. Funds Naval Base - "Like it or not"
• Howard's End: Visions of an Anti-Narcoterrorist Military Base

Autumn 1996

• Pressure for a Military Base Agreement is On
• F.O.R. Panama Campaign Actions
• Dreams in a Humble Region
• Canal and Base Transition Enters Decisive Phase
• The Panama Canal Declaration
• Southern Command Manuals Recommend Torture, Murder to Latin Militaries
• Academic and Human Rights Groups Charge Firing Range Transferred to Panama
• Still Contaminated
• News Briefs

Spring-Summer 1996

• Drug War Heats Up in Panama
• Panama Campaign Report
• U.S. Wants Most Valuable Properties
• "Medieval" Prisons in Panama
• Amnesty Generates Protests
• Action Appeal: Mining Company on Indigenous Lands
• News Briefs:
  • Military Aid to Panama,
  • New SouthCom Chief friend of Serbian General
• The Smell of Bananas?
• Base Reuse Plans Gather Steam
• International Forum Will Coordinate Base Cleanup

Winter 1996

• Talks on Military Bases Postponed
• Pentagon Guidance Threatens Panamanians' Health
• PRD's Honeymoon is Over
• Letter to the New York Times
• Operation "Old Horizons"
• Talks about Military Bases
• Malnutrition is Destroying Panama

Panamá Update is published quarterly by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean. The FOR is an inter-faith pacifist organization founded in 1915.

Panamá Update is compiled from Panamanian and U.S. sources, and attempts to present a popular perspective on events in Panama and on U.S. policy vis-à-vis Panama. While we do not necessarily endorse all the views presented here, we are dedicated to the goals of peace with justice in Panama, and specifically to the full observance of the Carter-Torrijos Treaties' provisions for U.S. military withdrawal and environmental clean-up of U.S. bases in Panama by the year 2000.

Hard copies of Panamá Update are available for a donation or upon request.

Panamá Update is edited by John Lindsay-Poland and Sarah Town.

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Fellowship of Reconciliation
Panamá Campaign
Produced by the Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on
Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission Street, #305, San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel: (415) 495-6334, Fax: (415) 495-5628, E-mail: forlatam@igc.apc.org