Arnulfo Arias
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Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid (August 15, 1901 – August 10, 1988 in Miami, Florida) was president of Panama on three occasions: 1940–41, 1949–51, and for two weeks in October 1968. He never served a full term, but was deposed by military coups on each occasion.
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[edit] Origins
Arias was born in Penonomé, the capital of Coclé province in western Panama. He was the son of Antonio Arias and Carmen Madrid, of provincial middle class origins. Contrary to certain information in several publications, Arnulfo Arias is not related to the Arias family that had participated in Panama's independence movement. He wrote his first letters with the French Christian Brothers in his native city. He studied medicine and surgery at Harvard University. Later, he specialized in Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Endocrinology.
[edit] Political Life
In 1925, Arias returned to Panama and assumed leadership of the nationalistic organization Patriotic Communal Action. This organization tapped into a building current of discontent in Panama against the considerable influence the United States exerted on the country. It formed the nucleus of the present-day Panameñista Party. Panama had been, for all intents and purposes, a U.S. protectorate since gaining independence in 1903.
In 1931, Arias led a coup that deposed Liberal President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena. The next year, he helped his brother Harmodio become president. He subsequently served in cabinet and diplomatic posts. In 1940, he was elected president by an unprecedented majority as the candidate of the National Revolutionary Party (PNR, which became the Panameñista Party in the mid-1940s).
Soon after taking office, Arias enacted a new constitution that granted women the right to vote for the first time. However, he also jailed dissidents, disenfranchised the non-Spanish-speaking population, and expressed sympathy with the Axis powers of World War II. At one point, he was so sympathetic to fascism that he used the swastika and fasces as symbols. He was ousted in October 1941, in a coup supported by the United States.
He ran for president again in 1948 as the candidate of a coalition of his party and the Authentic Revolutionary Party and lost. However, a year later the National Assembly declared that he had actually won. He suspended the constitution and set up a secret police force. Corruption was widespread, and he was overthrown again in 1951. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1964, then won election in 1968 as the standard-bearer of a five-party coalition. Taking office in October, he maneuvered to gain control of the legislature and the supreme court and to restructure the command of the National Guard. After only 11 days as president, he was ousted for the third time and fled into exile to Miami.
After the U.S. pressured military leader Omar Torrijos to liberalize his regime, Arias returned to Panama in 1978. While he was in exile, a small dissident group in his Panameñista Party joined the pro-Torrijos coalition, and took over the party's registration. The majority of the party remained with Arias, renaming itself the Authentic Panameñista Party.
In 1984, he again ran for president. When returns showed Arias with a substantial lead, the government, now controlled by Manuel Noriega, halted the count. It brazenly manipulated the results and declared that its candidate, Nicolás Ardito Barletta, had won by only 1,700 votes. Independent observers estimated that Arias would have won in a landslide had the election been conducted in a fair manner. As a result, Barletta was nicknamed fraudito (little fraud), in reference to his second name Ardito. Arias fled once again to Florida.
[edit] Death
He died on August 10, 1988 in Miami due to old age. His body was transferred to Panama City, where he was buried in the Cemetery Garden of Peace. His supporters used his funeral five days later as a protest against Noriega.
Arias' party regained power after the U.S. invasion of Panama a year later; its presidential candidate, Guillermo Endara, had won elections earlier that year, only to have them annulled by Noriega. It was renamed the Arnulfista Party in 1990, and in 2005 regained its old name, the Panameñista Party.
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| Preceded by Augusto Samuel Boyd |
President of Panama 1940–1941 |
Succeeded by Ricardo de la Guardia |
| Preceded by Roberto Chiari |
President of Panama 1949–1951 |
Succeeded by Alcibíades Arosemena |
| Preceded by Marco Aurelio Robles |
President of Panama October 1, 1968–October 11, 1968 |
Succeeded by José María Pinilla |
