The Sow Comes Back...

...and twists its tail. Just as we predicted on January 7, 2003, Martín Torrijos has today become the President of all Panamanians. Once again, the majority of the voters of this country, that is, those of us who would not vote for the PRD even if our lives depended on it, have divided ourselves over petty squabbles, and they have beaten us again without having an absolute majority of the votes, just as in 1994.

However, unlike in the past, there are fewer of us each time. The PRD, a party born in the barracks and an accomplice of the military dictatorship for almost two decades, which may have shed its skin but not its soul, has seen its number of voters rise dizzyingly, from a third to almost half of the electorate, as a consequence of the mediocre government that Arnulfismo delivered during this last term.

Things would be different if Mireya Moscoso had fulfilled her historic responsibility to revive democracy by establishing the runoff in the election of the President, mandatory primary elections within the political parties, and free candidacy for all elected offices. But that was too much to ask of President Moscoso, whose partisan shortsightedness is barely surpassed by that of her followers, and whose government—stained by multiple corruption scandals—has received today a colossal punishment vote.

We Panamanians have today once again handed power to the party that was the political arm of the dictatorship, the one that Boris Martínez began in 1968 and that Omar Torrijos commanded during thirteen years of absolute power, that made us suffer 21 years under the military boot, that cost us so many dead and so much persecution, and that was torn out with the pain and blood of the thousands of victims of the infamous military invasion of 1989.

Martín Torrijos is not guilty of his father’s sins but, in my opinion, by invoking his name so often in political activities and stating publicly that the late dictator is his “model,” he is not distancing himself enough from the baleful shadow of that era of repression, whose wounds have not yet healed for lack of justice in our system and of repentance in the guilty.

At this moment, the best scenario seems to be to hope that, just as El Toro did after five years of arrogance and blunders, Martín will respect democratic continuity when he has to hand over command to the next government chosen by popular vote in 2009, in transparent elections. It seems very hard to run a worse government than Mireya Moscoso’s, but with his inexperience and the advice of the PRD’s “old school,” Martín could manage it.

I thank former president Endara for having made the effort to rescue the dignity of this country. He has not lost, for he already served the nation in his time as few presidents have done. We have all lost, we Panamanians who believe that the hands of the PRD are still stained, by commission or by omission, with the blood of the priest Héctor Gallego, Dr. Hugo Spadafora, and all the other victims of the dictatorship who have not received justice, whose bones we are still digging up; we Panamanians who have always believed that Panama is a good idea, that it is still possible, and that it is worth it.

We are left with the consolation that Panamanian quasi-democracy, although it has not improved (because the runoff, free universal candidacy, and mandatory primaries have yet to be implemented), has at least remained standing, for the people have spoken and their voice has been respected. The price of democratic systems is that mistakes are paid for in one’s own flesh. I hope I am wrong, but I believe that during these five years we will have more than enough time to regret it.