| Panameñista Party Partido Panameñista |
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|---|---|
| Leader | Juan Carlos Varela |
| Founded | 1923, ACP 1940, PR 1969, PPA 1990, PA 1996, PP |
| Headquarters | Ave. Perú y Calle 37, Panama City, Panama |
| Ideology | Panamanian nationalism, Liberalism, Progressivism, Third way, Personalism |
| Political position | Centrism to Centre-right |
| International affiliation | Union of Latin American Parties |
| Official colours | Purple, Yellow, Red |
The Panameñista Party (Spanish: Partido Panameñista) is a Panamanian political party.
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The party is the oldest in Panama. It was founded in 1932 by Arnulfo Arias Madrid, a prominent medical , as the National Revolutionary Party. Its membership largely came from Patriotic Communal Action, a nationalist organization that opposed the large amount of American influence in Panama which had led a coup in 1930. The party s' first "Supreme Leader" and President was Ezequiel Fernandez Jaen, a key member of the "Patriotic Communal Action". Ezequiel Fernández Jaén became second Vice-President to Panamá s' President Juan Demóstenes Arosemena, who died in power. Ezequiel Fernández Jaén, became President of Panamá for only 3 days, after Juan Demostenes Arosemena died and while the first Vice-President Augusto Samuel Boyd arrived from Washington, where he was the Panamanian Ambassador.
In 1936, Harmodio's younger brother, Arnulfo Arias Madrid, became a national leader and President of Panamá in 1940. In the early 1930s, he had begun promoting a nationalist doctrine called "Panameñismo" (Panamanianism), and this became the basis for the party. It was renamed the Panameñista Party in the mid-1940s. His logo is "Por un Panamá Mejor"
After 1940, the party was dominated by Arnulfo Arias, who was elected president of Panama three times and deposed by the military each time. After his third ouster, in 1968, a small dissident group broke with Arias to support the military regime of Omar Torrijos. In return, the Torrijos regime allowed the dissidents to take over the party's registration. The main body, however, remained with Arias and renamed itself the Authentic Panameñista Party. Known by its Spanish acronym, "PPA," it was one of the leading opponents to Manuel Noriega.
Arnulfo Arias would have been the party's candidate for president in 1989, but he died in 1988. He was succeeded as party leader by his widow, Mireya Moscoso. For the 1989 elections, the party was the main component of an anti-Noriega coalition, with the PPA's Guillermo Endara as the coalition's presidential candidate. Pamaneñista election tallies showed a win for Endara by a 3-to-1 margin over Noriega's candidate, Carlos Duque, but those elections were nullified by Noriega, who claimed election fraud. Noriega was overthrown in the United States invasion of Panama a few months later. The night before the invasion, in the Canal Zone, Guillermo Endara, was sworn in by a judge.
The government of Guillermo Endara designated the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion a "national day of reflection". On that day hundreds of Panamanians marked the day with a "black march" through the streets of this capital to denounce the U.S. invasion and Endara's economic policies. Protesters echoed claims that 3,000 people were killed as a result of U.S. military action.
Endara is noted for staging a public hunger strike to call attention to poverty and homelessness left in the wake of the Noriega years and destruction caused by the U.S. invasion. He visited then U.S. President George Bush, pressing for emergency relief aid and cooperative measures to curtail the Panamanian narcotics trade. He is credited with restoring confidence in the banking industry, reducing unemployment, and to addressing narcotrafficking and violent crime. His administration has faced criticism of influence by wealthy businessmen and the U.S. On February 10, 1990, the Endara government abolished Panama's military and reformed the security apparatus by creating the Panamanian Public Forces.
Endara later distanced himself from the party due to differences of opinion with party leader Mireya Moscoso. He ran in the 2004 Panamanian presidential election as the candidate of the Solidarity Party. He finished second to Martín Torrijos. Recently, he founded his own political party Fatherland's Moral Vanguard Party.
Since Noriega's ouster, Panama has had three presidential elections, with candidates from opposing parties succeeding each other in the Palacio de las Garzas.
In 1990, the party was renamed the Arnulfista Party in its longtime leader's honor. Party members had been called "Arnulfistas" for many years. It lost the 1994 presidential elections to the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) administration of Ernesto Pérez Balladares, acting as the main opposition party before regaining the presidency in 1999 under Mireya Moscoso.
In 1994, a constitutional amendment permanently abolished the military of Panama.
The Arnulfista Party party changed its name back to the old Panameñista Party in 2005. It is Panama's second largest political party with over 250,000 members.
At the last legislative elections, 2 May 2004, the party won 19.2 % of the popular vote and 17 out of 78 seats. In presidential elections held the same day, its candidate, José Miguel Alemán, finished a poor third, with 16.4% of the vote.
Moscoso included in her platform a pledge to work to repeal press restrictions that criminalize criticism of public officials and permit prior censorship; in 1999 she signed a bill that mandated the submission of legislation to bring Panama's press laws in line with international standards by June 2000. This legislation was not forthcoming, but government disclosure laws were passed in 2001. Lawsuits against journalists continued; even President Moscoso, along with Winston Spadafora, the former minister of government and justice and a current Supreme Court justice, filed a criminal defamation suit.[1] In 2005, many of the 'gag laws' enacted under military rule in the 1960s were repealed by new president Martin Torrijos.[2]
Presidential and legislative elections were held in Panama on May 3, 2009.[3] Juan Carlos Varela was the candidate of the Panameñista Party, but eventually supported Ricardo Martinelli in a coalition of four parties, led by Martinelli's Democratic Change party. With 60% of the vote, Martinelli went on to beat the incumbent Democratic Revolutionary Party who had formed its own three-party coalition. Varela, the Panameñista, is now Panama's vice president to President Martinelli. Former 1990's president Guillermo Endara placed a distant third with 2.3% of the vote as the official candidate for the new Fatherland's Moral Vanguard Party, after gaining 31% in the last elections (2004).
Martinelli's and Varela's Alliance for Change coalition also dominated the National Assembly in 2009, winning 44 seats against 27 of the second-place coalition, with 2 other seats belonging to independents. A total of 22 legislative seats went specifically to the Panameñista Party.
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