Page 34 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

Paredes were in favor of amending the 1972 Constitution, neither man really
restructured the Electoral Tribunal, whose prestige had been eroded, among other
things, by the fraudulent registration of the Panameñista Party. In addition, de la
Espriella approved the Electoral Board, twisted out of shape by the National
Legislation Council to favor pro-government parties.

It is also worth recalling that the Social Security scandal reached the very
highest official circles and that even President de la Espriella found himself among
those somehow involved in this multimillion-dollar corruption case that shook the
regime to its foundations. De la Espriella and Paredes forced the Attorney General of
the Republic to resign when he threatened to leak stories in connection with the Social
Security scandal unless the obstacles placed in the way of his investigation were
removed.

But what really brought about the ungrateful manotazo that sent the president
packing was his desire to stay at the Herons Palace longer than the time assigned to
him.

Following the collapse of Paredes’s candidacy, de la Espriella began to scheme
to guarantee his stay in office. In fact, on December 23, 1983 “En Pocas Palabras” in
La Prensa commented: “... [de la Espriella] continues to maneuver to succeed himself
… the man is seriously considering succeeding himself; his speeches, the spontaneous
meetings organized for him, the mad baby kissing…”.

These maneuvers were conducted along two fronts, a political and a legal one.
On the political front, de la Espriella’s strategy was to attempt to neutralize Arias. It
would seem that Noriega, fearful of a fifth presidential run by the popular Panameñista
leader, authorized de la Espriella to explore the possibility of an alliance between the
Authentic Panameñistas and the government. At the same time, the president attempted
to reform the Electoral Code and to secure a more convenient reading of the
Constitution to allow presidential reelection and thus pave the way for his own
candidacy. The paradoxical argument was advanced that because de la Espriella had
not been elected by direct popular suffrage, the ban on reelection did not apply to him.
Such was the outrage in political circles that this disingenuous argument did not go
beyond the fertile imaginations of government strategists.

On the other hand, the feelers put out to Arias failed to produce the results the
regime had hoped for and on January 22, 1984, the Authentic Panameñista Party fielded
the presidential candidacy of this renowned politician and three times president on the
republic, with banker Carlos Francisco Rodríguez, a party member, as first vice
president. Three weeks later, the Christian Democratic Party announced its support of
Arias and joined the ticket with Dr. Ricardo Arias Calderón as second vice president.

The jig was up for de la Espriella. His only hope was to appoint a new cabinet
that would turn the government into an instrument at the service of the government
ticket, which he would not head. The General Staff demanded it, but he refused without
explanation. Two days after the creation of the Democratic Opposition Alliance