Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino
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Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino (born August 21, 1938 in Aguadulce, in the province of Coclé) was President of Panama from October 11, 1984 to September 28, 1985. He belonged to the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
From 1973 until 1978, as a University of Chicago-trained economist, he was one of Gen. Omar Torrijos' trusted advisers as minister of planning and economic policy. He resigned that position to become World Bank vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean. In late 1983, Ardito Barletta was approached by friends in the Panamanian government about running for president.
In February 1984, then-president Ricardo de la Espriella unexpectedly resigned the office and was succeeded by his vice-president, Jorge Illueca, who did not enter the race. Ardito Barletta ran as the coalition candidate backed by the National Guard, and his candidacy had the support of the government. Opposing Ardito Barletta and the UNADE (Unión Nacional Democrática) coalition was the Democratic Opposition Alliance (ADO — Alianza Democrática de Oposición) and its candidate, the 82-year old veteran politician, Arnulfo Arias, who had already been president three times, each of which resulted in his being ousted from office by a military coup.
The election was the country's first after 16 years of military rule; something which had been agreed to during US negotiations that led to the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977 (Ardito Barletta was among the negotiators for Panama). The campaign proved to be bitterly contested, with both sides predicting victory by a large margin. Arias and his backers claimed that Ardito Barletta was conducting the campaign unfairly. Indeed, UNADE took advantage of being the pro-government coalition, and used government vehicles and funds to help conduct its campaign. In addition, most of the media--television, radio stations, and newspapers--favored the government coalition. For example, only one of the country's five daily newspapers supported the ADO.
Voting day, May 6, 1984, was peaceful, but violence broke out the next day between supporters of the two main candidates in front of the Legislative Palace, where votes were being counted. One person was killed, and forty others were injured. Irregularities and errors in the voter registration and in the vote count led to credible charges of electoral misconduct and fraud. Thousands of people, who believed that they had registered properly, showed up at the polling places only to discover that their names had been inexplicably left off the voting list. Large-scale vote-buying, especially in rural areas, was reported.
Despite this atmosphere, the initial exit polls showed Arias with a substantial lead. Noriega halted the count and brazenly manipulated the results. On May 16, 1984, after ten days of challenges and accusations of fraud in the counting of more than 600,000 ballots cast, Ardito Barletta was declared winner by 1,713 votes, defeating Arias. However, independent observers estimated that Arias would have won in a landslide had the election been conducted fairly. Indeed, the American ambassador to Panama urged Washington to recognize Arias, but his superiors refused.
Arias's platform emphasized the need to reduce military influence in Panamanian politics. He called for the removal of the defense bill passed in September 1983, which had given the FDP (Fuerzas de Defensa de Panamá--Panama Defense Forces) led by Manuel Noriega) control over all security forces and services. With Ardito Barletta's win, the threat to the political power of the FDP had been circumvented. The United States government acknowledged that the election results were questionable but declared that Ardito Barletta's victory must be seen as an important forward step in Panama's transition to democracy.
Ardito Barletta, a straitlaced and soft-spoken technocrat, took office on October 11, 1984. In his inaugural address, preceded by a demonstration of 1,200 protesters that was quelled by the National Guard, the newly-elected president pledged to repair the economy, fight corruption, and unite Panama's political parties. He quickly launched an attack on the country's economic problems and sought help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance part of the country's US$3.7-billion debt--the world's highest on a per-capita basis. He promised to modernize the government's bureaucracy and implement an economic program that would create a 5-percent annual growth rate.
On November 13, 1984, to meet IMF requirements for a US$603-million loan renegotiation, Ardito Barletta announced economic austerity measures, including a 7 percent tax on all services and reduced budgets for cabinet ministries and autonomous government agencies. In response to massive protests and strikes by labor, student, and professional organizations, he revoked some of those measures ten days later. Negative popular reaction to Ardito Barletta's efforts to revive the country's stagnant economy troubled opposition politicians, the military, and many of his own UNADE supporters. Ardito Barletta's headstrong administrative style also offended Panamanian politicians who had a customary backslapping and back- room style of politicking. Moreover, Arditto Barletta's economic program conflicted with the military's traditional use of high government spending to keep the poor and the political left placated.
While Ardito Barletta was visiting New York City, government critic Hugo Spadafora was found brutally murdered and decapitated. Spadafora had revealed that he had evidence linking Noriega to drug trafficking and illegal arms dealing. Relatives of Spadafora claimed that witnesses had seen him in the custody of Panamanian security forces near the Costa Rica border immediately before his decapitated body was found on September 14, 1985. Ardito Barletta promised to bring the killers to justice. When Noriega got wind of Ardito Barletta's promise, he ordered the president to return home. He was immediately summoned to FDP headquarters and pressured to resign on September 27, 1985, after only eleven months in office. Noriega claimed that Ardito Barletta had been forced to resign because he was ineffective, but there is considerable evidence that the military--and Noriega himself--was involved in the murder. Ardito Barletta was succeeded the next day by his first vice president, Eric Arturo Delvalle, who announced a new cabinet on October 3, 1985.
The ouster of Ardito Barletta is considered to have been the beginning of the end for Noriega; Ardito Barletta had been considered "sacrosanct" by Washington. Within four years, Noriega had been thrown out off office by American military intervention.
| Preceded by Jorge Illueca |
President of Panama 1984–1985 |
Succeeded by Eric Arturo Delvalle |
Sources: Panama: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors.
