Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – July 31, 1981) was a Panamanian military officer, politician, and revolutionary who was the military leader of Panama, as well as the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, but instead held self-imposed and all-encompassing titles including "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution". Torrijos took power in a coup d'état and instituted a number of social reforms.

Torrijos is best known for negotiating the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties that eventually gave Panama full sovereignty over the Panama Canal. The two treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999, ending the control of the canal that the U.S. had exercised since 1903. On December 31, 1999, the final phase of the treaty, the US relinquished control of the Panama Canal and all areas in what had been the Panama Canal Zone.

His son Martín Torrijos was president from 2004 to 2009.

Background

Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was born on February 13, 1929, in Santiago in the province of Veraguas, the sixth of twelve children. His parents were both employed as teachers. His Panamanian mother was Joaquina Herrera Gordillo, and his father, José Maria Torrijos Rada, was originally from Colombia. He was educated at the local Juan Demóstenes Arosemena School and, at eighteen, won a scholarship to the military academy in San Salvador. He graduated with a commission as a second lieutenant. He joined the Panamanian army, the National Guard (Guardia Nacional), in 1952. He was promoted to captain in 1956 then to major in 1960. He took a cadet course at the School of the Americas in 1965. He became the Executive Secretary of the National Guard in 1966.

Career

left|thumb|Omar Torrijos (right) with farmers in the Panamanian countryside. The Torrijos government was well known for its policies of land redistribution.

thumb|right|President Carter shakes hands with General Torrijos of Panama after signing the Panama Canal Treaty.

He had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel by 1966. Due to accusations of his involvement in election frauds, Torrijos was ordered to El Salvador in 1968 as a military attaché. It was during this year that his close friend in the Guardia, Major Boris Martínez and Colonel Jose Humberto Ramos (godfather of his son Omar) initiated a meditated and successful coup d'état against the recently elected president of Panama, Arnulfo Arias, after almost eleven days in office.

Having received news of the coup while in the Canal Zone, Torrijos and a few officers including Demetrio Lakas sought to re-establish some form of civilian rule, including an attempt to install Arnulfo's vice-president, Raúl Arango, as the new president, much to Martínez's dismay. His reforms were accompanied by an ambitious public works program, financed by foreign banks.

In international politics, Torrijos supported Chilean President Salvador Allende and welcomed refugees after the 1973 coup d'état. He helped the Sandinista guerrillas in Nicaragua and other rebel forces in El Salvador, Guatemala, and renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

In 1978, he stepped down as head of the government but remained de facto ruler of the country while another one of his followers, Arístides Royo, was a figurehead president. He also restored some civil liberties; U.S. President Jimmy Carter had told him that the Senate would never approve the Canal treaties unless Torrijos made some effort to liberalize his rule.

Personal life

Omar Torrijos has been generally regarded as a personable man though varying accounts appear contradictory. He married Raquel Pauzner in 1954 and had three children. Having spent most of his time with campesinos during the weekends, he had little time to spare for his children. He had three primary residences: a beach house at Farallón, a house at Coclesito, and a house on Fiftieth Street in Panama City, the last of which his family lived a few blocks from. According to first-hand accounts by Torrijos's friend and guest, Graham Greene, Torrijos had a mistress who was studying sociology in the U.S.

Torrijos has been described as a heavy drinker who enjoyed Havana cigars and beautiful women. Four aides and two pilots also died in the crash. His death caused national mourning around the country, especially in poor areas. Following a large state funeral, Torrijos's body was briefly buried in a cemetery in Casco Viejo (the Old City of Panama), before being moved to a mausoleum in the former Canal Zone on Fort Amador near Panama City. He was succeeded as commander of the National Guard and de facto leader of Panama by Florencio Flores (de jure was a military leader; however, de facto never exercised power as one,) who later gave way to Rubén Darío Paredes. The crash site is now a national park and his house in Coclesito is now a museum.

Torrijos' death generated charges and speculation that he was the victim of an assassination plot. For instance, in pre-trial hearings in Miami in May 1991, Manuel Noriega's attorney, Frank Rubino, was quoted as saying "General Noriega has in his possession documents showing attempts to assassinate General Noriega and Mr. Torrijos by agencies of the United States." No such documents have as yet been produced. In 1981, Soviet news agency TASS also claimed that the U.S. had caused Torrijos's death.

Former Noriega chief of staff Colonel Roberto Diaz, a cousin of Torrijos, as recently as 2013 has several times accused the United States and Noriega of involvement in Torrijos's death and called for investigations.

Foreign honours

  • :
  • 70px Recipient of the Order of Belize (2006, awarded posthumously)
  • :
  • 70px Recipient of the Order of José Martí (1976)
  • :
  • 70px Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru (1974)
  • :
  • 70px Collar of the Order of Civil Merit (1977)
  • 70x70px Order of the Yugoslav Great Star (1976)

See also

  • Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
  • José de Jesús Martínez
  • List of unsolved deaths
  • Tocumen International Airport
  • Getting To Know The General: The Story of an Involvement

References

Further reading

  • Grieb, Kenneth J. "Omar Torrijos Herrera" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 5, pp. 259-60. Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  • Lafeber, Walter. The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective. (1979)
  • Priestley, George. Military Government and Popular Participation in Panama: The Torrijos Regime, 1968-1975. (1986)
  • Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Panama, by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Organization of American States, 1978. The Commission concluded that there was a significant improvement in the situation of human rights from 1972 onwards.
  • Panama The Government of Torrijos and the National Guard. An assessment of the career of Omar Torrijos in the context of Panamanian history.
  • Web Site of author John Perkins.
  • His Man in Panama. By Alan Riding. New York Times, November 4, 1984. A review of Graham Greene's Getting to Know the General.
  • Torrijos: The Man and the Myth . Americas Society exhibition in NYC. Photographs of Graciela Iturbide, Jan 31 – May 5, 2008.