President Bush, stepping up efforts to drive Manuel Noriega from power in Panama, announced Friday the United States would break diplomatic relations with the country and not recognize any government installed by the military leader.
The president's move came as Noriega selected controller Francisco Rodriguez as president of Panama, after having invalidated the results of a May 7 election through what Bush termed "repression, intimidation and fraud."Referring to the vote of the Panamanian people "to choose democracy over dictatorship," Bush said, "Panama is, as of this date, without any legitimate government.
"Accordingly, the United States will not recognize any government installed by General Noriega," the president said. "Our ambassador will not return, and we will not have any diplomatic contact with the Noriega regime."
While the action was intended to escalate the U.S. campaign to isolate Noriega and force him from power, the practical impact was not clear.
The United States has had no formal diplomatic contact with the Noriega regime for months. U.S. Ambassador Arthur Davis was recalled to Washington in May in a symbolic protest of how Noriega nullified the outcome of the election, including the brutal public beatings of the opposition candidates.
At lower levels, however, the U.S. Embassy in Panama City has continued to operate and will continue to handle consular matters even in the face of the steps ordered Friday by Bush, administration officials said.
"We're saying, `We're not buying on to your new government,' " said one official. "But there are still certain things that have to be done, requiring a certain amount of diplomatic activity."
In Washington Thursday, the ambassador from Panama not allied with Noriega, Juan Sosa, locked the doors of his country's embassy buildings and turned over the keys and about $300 million in bank accounts to the State Department to hold until there was a legitimate government in his country.
The money, which has piled up from canal fees and taxes paid by the United States, has been prevented from going to Noriega as part of the economic sanctions imposed by President Reagan last year and renewed by Bush.
Sosa said, "We view the situation in Panama as worse than in Colombia. Colombia is at war (with drug barons), but Panama has already been delivered to the dictator."
Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger told a special session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States that Noriega had an ill-gotten fortune of up to $300 million.
"Noriega's greed, personal ambition and selfishness are the origin, core and sustenance of Panama's crisis," he said in a speech in which he detailed long-standing U.S. charges against the Panamanian military leader.
"Indifference to the voluminous evidence can only give license and encouragement to Noriega and his kind," Eagleburger said.
Panama's OAS representative Jose Maria Cabrera said Eagleburger's presentation was filled with "fabrications, lies and half truths." He said Washington got evidence from convicts by promising to reduce their sentences.
Costa Rica's OAS Ambassador, Guillermo Villalobos, said Panama appeared headed for an anti-democratic and dictatorial future. Claiming that the change of power Friday promised to be cosmetic, he said, "That nation is entering in a serious juridical vacuum."