Panama Update Archives
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March 2000 Moscoso Government Places Despite repeated public declarations by President Mireya Moscoso that Panama wants the United States to clean up all unexploded munitions, chemical weapons and other contamination left on former military bases, Moscoso's government has placed scant political capital into solving the problem. Last summer, the Panamanian government hired the prestigious Washington law firm Arnold & Porter to represent it on the cleanup issue. Arnold & Porter, in turn, contracted the engineering firm Geophex UXO Ltd to document lands still contaminated with explosives. Photos taken by Geophex of unexploded munitions left behind by the U.S. military's cleanup crew were made into a secret report which has been shown to US officials in an attempt to demonstrate that the United States never did all that was "practicable" -- the standard set by the Canal Treaties -- to remove hazards to human health and safety from areas used by the military. Panamanian officials pointed to a promise made by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to send a technical team to verify Panama's claims that the United States left explosives in plain sight on firing ranges. Albright made the promise during a three-hour visit to Panama on January 15, apparently made to mollify those who criticized her absence during the canal transfer ceremonies on December 16 and 31. But the technical team did not come to check on the United States' cleanup work, according to US Ambassador Simon Ferro. Instead, they were looking at what Panama was doing to keep people from entering the dangerous former explosive ranges -- and apparently to assuage Panamanian critics of Washington's do-nothing policy on the contamination issue. Marco Ameglio, who chairs the Legislative Assembly's Foreign Relations Committee and is a member of the ruling Arnulfista Party, called the technical team a "joke" that went to Panama on "a tourist mission." The problem has dropped out of the Panamanian press since February. Some US officials dismissed the Arnold & Porter report and stood by what has become their mantra: that the United States has fulfilled its obligations under the treaty. "Arnold & Porter... as prestigious as it may be, doesn't have the technical competence to determine if the United States government fulfilled or didn't fulfill its obligations under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties," one US official told El Panamá América ." He added that one photo in the report showed an antipersonnel mine, and cast doubt on the report's integrity, saying that the Southern Command did not use antipersonnel mines in Panama. The official's assertion is contradicted by the military's own reports. US Army South documented use of antipersonnel mines in Panama in an October 1998 report and expected to find them during the surface clearance conducted in 1999. Panama's point man for the cleanup issue is Juan Méndez, a former marketing officer with Philip Morris who lived in Ecuador before the Moscoso government was elected. Mendez says that Panama does not want economic compensation for the contaminated area, but that the United States carry out the cleanup itself - with civilian workers. In the United States, however, cleanup contracts for firing ranges are normally administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile, the chief of Panama's environmental agency, Ricardo Anguizola, warned that compounds from unexploded munitions may also be contaminating Panama's groundwater, in addition to the dangers of detonation posed by the explosives. The areas should be declared "highly contaminated" for that reason, Anguizola said. President Moscoso prepared a decree in January making it illegal to enter the former explosive impact ranges, on pain of a fine or prison. Other former military areas also face serious contamination problems. Water samples near several buildings on former Howard Air Force Base and one in what was the Army's Fort Kobbe showed high levels of petroleum distillates, according to The Panama News. According to another consultant familiar with the bases' contamination, "Howard is an ugly mess." The head of Panama's Interoceanic Regional Authority, Nicolás Ardito Barletta, who for years tried to keep a low profile for the contamination problem, resigned on December 30 after months of pressure from the Moscoso government to move on. He was replaced by Alfredo Arias, a 69-year-old civil engineer and former Arnulfista legislator. Time will tell how Arias addresses the contamination problems as well as the potentially productive assets of the former military bases. Sources: El Universal, 1/7/00; El Panamá América, 1/20; 2/25/00; La Prensa 1/19; 1/29/00; US Army South, Explosive Safety Submission for Empire and Pina Ranges, 10/98; The Panama News 1/7/00. Fellowship of Reconciliation |