Waging Peace: Panama

Go to: Monitoring Elections | Building a Model for Transparency | Transferring the Canal | Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales | Election Reports

Monitoring Elections

1989 Elections
In January 1989, Panamanian officials asked the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas to monitor the voting process for elections to be held on May 7, 1989. General Manuel Noriega was confident of victory, but when it became clear that his candidates had lost badly, he nullified the results. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter denounced the election as fraudulent and encouraged the Organization of American States to mediate a solution. Eventually, General Noriega was ousted by U.S. troops.

1994 Elections
In May 1994, President Carter and a team of international observers were invited back to Panama to witness the presidential elections and help with an orderly transition. Unlike the 1989 election described above, President Carter praised the 1994 elections as "a model of organization, training of officials, performance of party observers, and knowledge of voters about the procedures to be followed."

After the election, President-elect Pérez Balladares requested assistance from The Carter Center for a national dialogue, sponsored by the U. N. Development Program, to help forge a consensus on a national agenda. This was the first Panamanian experience with an orderly transfer of political power after a democratic election.

Promoting Democracy
The Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas is a group of current and former heads of government from the Western Hemisphere who promote democracy and the peaceful resolution of the region's conflicts. Former Presidents Ernesto Pérez Balladares and Nicholas Ardito-Barletta are members of the council. Well-known for mediating and observing elections, the council has monitored voting in Jamaica, Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, the United States, Paraguay, Mexico, and Venezuela. The council also has played an important role in promoting solutions to the region's debt crisis and in encouraging freer trade, including the North American Free Trade Agreement and a wider Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Building a Model for Transparency

The Carter Center and its Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas have initiated a multiyear project to work with governments and civil society in the Americas to develop concrete strategies to help ensure transparency in government transactions and fight corruption. Transparency will improve investor confidence, spur economic growth, provide better public services to the population, and increase public confidence in democratic institutions.

At a high-level conference held May 4-5, 1999, leaders from across the hemisphere, including former Panama President Nicolas Ardito-Barletta, came to The Carter Center to evaluate specific anti-corruption efforts and seek commitments from other governments to implement similar strategies in their own countries. It is hoped that progress by Latin American countries can serve as a model for the world.

Transferring the Canal

President Carter led a 29-member U.S. delegation to the official ceremony handing over the Panama Canal to Panama, ending almost 100 years of U.S. administration of the canal. At the Miraflores Locks, where the canal meets the Pacific Ocean, with Panama President Mireya Mosco, President Carter called it a "historic occasion, perhaps one of the most significant that has ever occurred in this hemisphere. A new relationship now begins between your country and mine. Today we come together with a spirit of mutual respect, acknowledging without question the complete sovereignty of Panama over this region." Other dignitaries attending the historic ceremony included King Juan Carlos of Spain, Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo, Colombia President Andres Pastrana, Bolivia President Hugo Banzer, Ecuador President Jamil Mahuad, and Costa Rica President Miguel Angel Rodriguez.

Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales

Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories was Panama President Ernesto Pérez Balladares.

Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for Panama >