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Proposed
"Multinational
Anti-Narcotics
Base"
in
Panama
Now
Uncertain
6/5/98
In an apparent bow to pressure from Panamanians over his previous acquiescence to the United States' desire to open a "multinational" anti-narcotics base on their soil, President Ernesto Perez Balladares has apparently re-thought his position. The Associated Press reports (5/31) that in a speech to students on May 28, he said that such a base would indeed amount to a continued U.S. military presence in Panama, despite his previous insistence that it would not. The two nations had reached an apparent agreement on the base, which would begin operations out of Howard Air Force Base in 1999, immediately after US troops are scheduled to leave the canal zone, and Panama, under a 1977 agreement to end the US' nearly ninety-year military presence in that country. Coletta Youngers, senior researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America, told The Week Online, "It would appear as if internal Panamanian politics are driving this issue. There will be a referendum on the ballot in August to determine whether President Perez Balladares will be allowed, under their constitution, to run for another term. The deal on the base was supposed to be done by the end of May so that it could appear on that same ballot. But with the dissent that's surfaced over that issue, it seems that there is trepidation as to the impact that it might have on the presidential question."
-- END --
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Issue #45, 6/5/98
DEA Holds Hearing on Use of Herbicide in Eradication | "Big Six" Accounting Firm Bought Laundered Currency at Discount, US Government Says | Man Whose Grandmother's Ashes Were Mistaken for Methamphetamine Suing for Wrongful Imprisonment | Proposed "Multinational Anti-Narcotics Base" in Panama Now Uncertain | US to Build Anti-Drug Military Training Center in Peru | Medical Necessity Defense Allowed in McWilliams Case | California Global Days | California Primaries Report | Hemp Update | Nominations Being Accepted for DPF Awards | Editorial: The UN, Making the World Safe for War
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