Reaganites and Rosa-golpistas: Omar Torrijos, Panama-United States Relations, and the Rise of the Reagan Doctrine

Abstract

Abstract:From 1968 to 1981, Omar Torrijos led Panama's military government. Unlike many Cold War military regimes in Latin America, Torrijos embraced a heterodox policy program that sought to increase Panamanian autonomy from United States foreign relations priorities. His stances were characteristic of contemporaneous rosa-golpista ("pink-coupist") military governments in states such as Bolivia and Peru. While he is best known for securing the Panama Canal from the United States, Torrijos also embraced Third World and non-aligned solidarity efforts over other matters. Likewise, he involved Panama in Central American crises in Belize/Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. However, Torrijos's perceived susceptibility to communist manipulation concerned activists, intellectuals, and policymakers in the United States, primarily those who came to be aligned with President Ronald Reagan. Torrijos's other external initiatives were at least as upsetting to proto-Reaganite segments of United States society as were his "Canal diplomacy" endeavors. Sources ranging from Panamanian and US diplomatic accounts to articles and commentaries in neoconservative publications such as Human Events demonstrate that Torrijos's rosa-golpista foreign policies were important in influencing the emergence of the Reagan Doctrine. However, while Torrijos was more active in counter-hegemonic Cold War geopolitics than he is usually given credit for, proto-Reaganite suspicions of him were generally overblown.