Page 27 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

alternative to the government and the opposition, fueled by Paredes’s spite and the
ambitions of a young and erratic politician by the name of Olimpo Sáenz.

Let us return now to Paredes’s original ephemeral candidacy. On September
12, La Prensa published a front-page photograph of a telegram reading:

ANTON, SEPTEMBER 11, 1984

GENERAL NORIEGA

HIS OFFICE

GENERAL NORIEGA: AWARE OF THE TELEGRAM THAT I DID
NOT RECEIVE, I PUBLICLY ANSWER IT FROM THE HEIGHTS

OF MY DIGNITY, SLIGHTED BY YOU. MY COMMITMENT TO
PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IS EVERY SENSIBLE MAN´S
AMBITION. THE BETRAYAL OF THE COMMITMENT MADE

ONE AND A HALF YEAR AGO FOR THE WELFARE OF OUR
PEOPLE IS A CRIME AGAINST THE NATION.

EVERYTHING FOR MY COUNTRY.

BRIGADIER GENERAL RUBEN DARIO PAREDES

A few days earlier, Noriega had sent Paredes a telegram congratulating him
on his “wise” decision to give up his presidential ambitions. The answer was not long
in coming and it made it abundantly clear that there was little –extraordinarily little–
love lost between both military men. It is obvious that Paredes was deceived. He was
promised support and who knows what else to get him to retire gracefully from the
National Guard. But, once outside the ranks and under the illusion that he was still in
command, Paredes ordered a cabinet change. His goal was to install close followers in
key posts in the administration, thus guaranteeing the support of the government
machine for his then imminent presidential campaign. He was disdainfully ignored.
Old and wily political hands were quick to draw the inference that Paredes was not the
“man”. They dropped him with the same haste they had earlier flocked to him and
headed for the nearest corner coffee shop to speculate, avidly and with great
anticipation, as to the identity of the candidate the military would pick.

B. The Spoken Portrait

Many considered themselves presidentiable but only would be chosen.
Wishing to make the task of political speculators easier, Noriega, at a meeting of the