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I'd like to post this interview with the author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins. Undoubtedly you've read his commments concerning Omar Torrijos, the former Panamanian President's assassination: AMY GOODMAN: The Panamanian president, Martin Torrijos, was in Washington earlier this week to discuss a pending free trade agreement with the United States. President Bush told reporters Tuesday that securing the agreement with Panama, as well as Colombia and South Korea, was “a priority of this government and should be a priority of the United States Congress.” He congratulated Torrijos on winning national approval for the $5.2 billion expansion plan for the Panama Canal and added, “Panama is an important friend and ally of the United States.”
But three decades ago, the moves to nationalize the Panama Canal by President Torrijos’s father, General Omar Torrijos, met with enormous resistance in this country. Here, Ronald Reagan denounces Torrijos on national television in 1976 as part of his campaign for the Republican nomination.GOV. RONALD REAGAN: Torrijos is a friend and ally of Castro and, like him, is pro-Communist. He threatens sabotage and guerrilla attacks on our installations if we don’t yield to his demands. Well, the Canal Zone is not a colonial possession. It is not a long-term lease. It is sovereign United States territory, every bit the same as Alaska and all the states that were carved from the Louisiana Purchase. We should end those negotiations and tell the General: we bought it, we paid for it, we build it, and we intend to keep it. AMY GOODMAN: In 1977, under the Carter administration, General Torrijos succeeded in negotiating the treaties that would eventually give his country full sovereignty over the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999. But General Torrijos did not live to see this transfer of power. He died August 1, 1981 in a plane crash.
I’m joined right now by a man who spent a great deal of his time in the late ’70s with General Torrijos. He was trying in vain to convince Torrijos to acquiesce to American corporate plans for the Panamanian economy. He calls himself a former “economic hit man.” John Perkins is the bestselling author of, yes, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and his latest book, now out in paperback, The Secret History of the American Empire.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is dedicated to General Torrijos, as well as the former president of Ecuador, Jaime Roldos, both of whom died in plane crashes within three months of each other. Perkins writes, "Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire.”
John Perkins, with us in our firehouse studio, welcome.
JOHN PERKINS: Thanks, Amy. It’s good to be here again.
AMY GOODMAN: Your thoughts, as Torrijos’s son is now meeting with President Bush?
JOHN PERKINS: Well, Torrijos’s son is very, very different from his father and is really—you know, follows this long line of destruction in Panama. So not only did we assassinate his father, Omar Torrijos, but later we went in and took out Noriega, killed maybe two to—at least 2,000, maybe 6,000, innocent Panamanians, bombed the country. And after that, any president that came along, no matter what his true belief system was, would know that he was a target that the United States was watching very closely. More: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/8/economic_hit_man_john_perkins_recounts |
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