Omar Torrijos
Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (born February 13, 1929 in Santiago de Veraguas , Panama , † July 31, 1981 ) was a Panamanian general and leader of the military junta from 1968 to 1981.
Life
childhood and education
Omar Torrijos was the sixth son of primary school teachers José María Torrijos and Joaquina Herrera. After primary school he attended the Escuela Normal JD Arosemena .
In February 1946, on the basis of a scholarship from the El Salvador government , he entered the local military academy, Academia Militar General Gerardo Barrios , where he was nicknamed "El Indio" ("The Indian") by his classmates. After graduating, he returned to Panama in 1952 apparently returned and appeared as a second lieutenant ( Subteniente into the National Guard). In 1955 he was promoted to lieutenant, 1956 to captain , 1960 to major , 1966 to lieutenant colonel and in 1968 to colonel .
Political career
Between 1903 and 1968 Panama was nominally a constitutional democracy, but was dominated by a money oligarchy . From the beginning of the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to turn against the political hegemony of the oligarchs; there have been several coups . In October 1968, President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, elected three times and deposed twice by military force, was again deposed by the National Guard after only ten days in office (October 11, 1968). He was known for his extremely US- friendly politics. A military junta was then established. The commander of the National Guard , Brigadier General Omar Torrijos, became the most important man in Panama's political life. Although controlled elections were held in 1972 that resulted in Demitrio Lakas as president, the new constitution ensured that Torrijos would remain the real strongman of Panama with almost unlimited political power for the next six years. It was not until 1978 that he formally resigned as head of the government and named Aristides Royo, one of his supporters, as president. Omar Torrijos was perceived by his followers as the first authentic leader of Panama, representing the majority of the people who were poor, spoke Spanish and had ethnically mixed roots. Torrijos cracked down on members of the opposition, many of whom were imprisoned, banned or killed.
He declared the recovery of the Panama Canal to be the main goal of his government, which he formulated with the sentence: "I do not want to be in the history books, but in the Canal Zone." The canal zone is a strip of five miles on either side of the canal, which the United States (with the exception of the cities of Panama and Colón ) controlled for decades as a kind of protectorate.
Torrijos has been accused of being corrupt internationally, but he was a charismatic leader whose domestic and foreign policy programs were very popular with those parts of the population largely ignored by the oligarchy , both in the countryside and in the city. He was a human rights advocate and had opened his country to refugees from across the political spectrum. Torrijos planned a new canal, the construction of which the Japanese wanted to finance, who were already among the greatest beneficiaries of the canal. To this end, he conducted negotiations with a Japanese consortium, which was led by the businessman and then President of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shigeo Nagano .
On September 7, 1977, Torrijos and the then US President Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaty , which guaranteed Panama from December 31, 1999 full sovereignty over the Canal Zone. A supplementary treaty (the neutrality treaty) also contained clauses obliging Panama to maintain democratic conditions and not to hinder international trade. The ratification ceremony at Fort Clayton was an embarrassment for Torrijos because he was clearly drunk. As a thank you for his political support in the negotiations on the Torrijos-Carter treaty, Omar Torrijos gave his friend John Wayne the island of Taborcillo .
Death in an aircraft accident
Four years after the conclusion of the contract, Torrijos was killed in an airplane accident on July 31, 1981 under unknown circumstances. According to John Perkins , it was a political murder by the US secret service CIA . Roberto Diaz Herrera , a former colonel under dictator Noriega and cousin Torrijos, claims in his 2009 book "Estrellas Clandestinas" that Omar Torrijos was murdered by Manuel Noriega on behalf of the CIA.
His son Martín Torrijos was also President of Panama (from May 2, 2004 to June 30, 2009).
Trivia
Graham Greene gave it to him with the autobiographical work Getting to Know the General. The Story of an Involvement (1984, German: My friend, the General. History of an engagement. German by Werner Richter, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1986, ISBN 3-499-15807-8 ) set a literary monument.
literature
- Mario Augusto Rodríguez Véliz: Sol y sombra de Omar Torrijos Herrera , Panamá (Fundación Omar Torrijos) 2008. ISBN 978-9962-651-23-9
- Graciela Iturbide / Gabriel García Márquez (Ed.): Torrijos: El hombre y el mito. The man and the myth , Brooklyn, NY (Umbrage Ed.) 2007. ISBN 978-1-884167-68-3
- José de Jesús Martínez: Mi General Torrijos , Havana (Ediciones Casa de las Americas) 1987.
- Robert C. Harding: Military foundations of Panamanian politics , New Brunswick, NJ a. a. (Transaction Publ.) 2001. ISBN 0-7658-0075-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/a/arias_arnulfo.htm
- ↑ http ://www. britica.com/EBchecked/topic/34202/Arnulfo-Arias
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/1240590-cia-hit-list-omar-torrijos-supreme-chief-of-panama
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/1240590-cia-hit-list-omar-torrijos-supreme-chief-of-panama
- ↑ Pohl, Günter: The creeping revision of the treaties - past and present of the Panama Canal from Panama / ila 270 Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/1240590-cia-hit-list-omar-torrijos-supreme-chief-of-panama
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/1240590-cia-hit-list-omar-torrijos-supreme-chief-of-panama
- ↑ http://www.isla-taborcillo.com/cms/index.php/de/hotel/history
- ↑ John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - on the move in the service of the business mafia, ISBN 978-3-442-15424-1 , Goldmann-Verlag, 6th edition, April 2007, chapter 27: p. 261 ff.
- ^ Diaz Herrera, Roberto: Estrellas Clandestinas, 2009, ISBN 978-6-120-000-311
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Juan José Rodriguez in: El Nacional, February 16, 2013: www.elnacional.com.do/eeuu-elimino-a-torrijos-para-impulsar-a-noriega-en-panama-afirma-exmilitar/
- ^ AP dispatch, New York Times, June 10, 1987, Early Edition, p. A3
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Torrijos, Omar |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Torrijos Herrera, Omar Efraín |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Panamanian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 13, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santiago de Veraguas |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 31, 1981 |