ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95090709.LAR
DATE:09/07/95
TITLE:07-09-95 PANAMA WILLING TO PROVIDE HEMISPHERIC COUNTER-DRUG CENTER
TEXT:
TR95090709 (Says President Perez Balladares) +eg (720)
By Eric Green
USIA Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares says his
country is willing to provide a clearinghouse to intensify
counter-drug activities in the hemisphere.
Perez Balladares, reporting on his Sept. 6 talks with President
Clinton at the White House and with high-ranking administration
officials and congressional leaders in Washington the following day,
told reporters he was dissatisfied with the hemisphere's response to
the vast illegal empires created by drug traffickers and money
launderers.
"To put it bluntly," he said in the fluent English he perfected while
earning bachelors and graduate degrees at U.S. universities, "we have
to coordinate much more, we have to integrate our policies a lot more
than has been done so far to have any effectiveness in this fight
against drugs and money laundering."
Perez Balladares said the idea for a drug clearinghouse was put
forward at a meeting of the presidents of the Rio Group in Quito,
which he attended before coming to Washington.
The Panamanian president said the group, composed of the countries of
Central and South America, suggested the clearinghouse could be opened
in one of the military installations that the United States is
transferring to Panama as part of the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties.
Under the treaties, Panama assumes total control of the canal at noon,
Dec. 31, 1999.
Panama, a major transshipment center for illegal drugs from the Andean
countries to the United States, would offer free use of the facility,
Perez Balladares said, and every country involved would contribute
personnel "to man the operations and do the intelligence work."
With a smile, he added, "and hopefully somebody else will fund the
final bill."
Clinton, the Panamanian reported, said the idea for a drug
clearinghouse was one he would like to explore further within his
administration.
One of the major problems, he said, is that the countries of the
hemisphere do not have "equal legislation and equal law enforcement
capabilities" to fight the drug traffickers and money launderers.
"I think we're putting a lot of resources, scare resources on our
part, a lot of effort, a lot of aggravation, and we're not moving fast
enough, big enough," Perez Balladares said. "We have to rethink our
strategy and we have to join forces if we're going to be effective in
this fight."
Perez Balladares said the problem with current anti-drug efforts is
that when narcotics traffickers and money launderers meet resistance
in one country, they can easily "jump" to another country and set up
operations there.
During the Quito meeting, he reported, Brazil expressed great concern
that drug traffickers might move into that country from Colombia,
following Bogota's success in either killing or capturing the leaders
of the Cali cocaine cartel.
"So we are proposing," Perez Balladares said, "a joint force, a joint
effort of all Latin American countries, together with the consuming
countries, not only the United States but some European countries, so
that our efforts become effective."
What especially troubles hemispheric leaders, Perez Balladares said,
is that they feel overmatched by the power of the drug cartels.
"Our countries are relatively small -- financially and
geographically," Perez Balladares said, "and the power that the (drug
traffickers) manage on their side is huge compared to the resources we
have. So we have to join our effort if we're going to win this
battle."
Following his talks in Washington, Perez Balladares was scheduled to
visit Taiwan with the purpose of attracting Taiwanese investment to
Panama. He said his country is close to signing an agreement under
which the Taiwanese would build a new container port on the Atlantic
side of Panama.
Attracting foreign investment and creating new business opportunities
in his country is important, Perez Balladares said, because of the
number of jobs that are being lost by Pananamians who work at U.S.
military installations. Control of those installations is gradually be
transferred to Panama under terms of the Panama Canal treaties.
Another purpose of Perez Balladares' visit to Taiwan is to pursue his
country's application into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum, the 18-member group that includes Taiwan, the United States,
Chile and Mexico.
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