| Guillermo David Endara Galimany | |
|---|---|
| President of Panama | |
| In office December 20, 1989 – September 1, 1994 |
|
| Preceded by | Manuel Noriega (as military leader) |
| Succeeded by | Ernesto Pérez Balladares (as President of Panama) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 12, 1936 |
| Died | September 28, 2009 (aged 73) |
| Political party | Panameñista Party |
Guillermo David Endara Galimany (May 12, 1936 – September 28, 2009) was the President of Panama from 1989 to 1994. He ran for office in 2004 and 2009 but lost to the former President Martin Torrijos and to the incumbent President Ricardo Martinelli.
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Endara was born in 1936 in Panamá. His middle-class parents had been allies of Authentic Panameñista Party founder Arnulfo Arias, and the family went into exile after Arias was overthrown in a 1941 coup. He went to school in Argentina and a military school in Los Angeles, and later studied as a pre-med at University of Tulane and attended the University of Panama Law School (where he graduated first in his class). He then received a subsequent LLM degree from New York University. He returned to Panama in 1963 to practice law, served two terms in the Panamanian National Assembly and taught law at the university. In 1968 Endara served as Arias's minister of planning and economic policy during his brief third term. When Arias was overthrown again in October 1968, Endara went underground, was jailed in 1971, and joined the deposed executive in exile until the political ban on Arias was lifted in 1978. He remained politically engaged and when Arias died in 1988, Endara became a leading opposition figure.
In the Panamanian presidential election of 1989, Endara ran as the candidate of an alliance of parties against Carlos Duque, the candidate of a pro-Noriega coalition. The Endara alliance organized a count of results from the country's election precincts before they were sent to the district centers, allegedly to safeguard against vote-rigging. This count organized by the Endara alliance showed Endara defeating Carlos Duque by a nearly 3-to-1 margin, the highest in Panamanian electoral history. Noriega had planned to declare Duque the winner regardless of the actual results, but Duque refused to go along. Due to Duque's refusal, Noriega called off the election and declared the results void. The next day, Endara and one of his running mates, Guillermo Ford, were badly beaten[1] by a detachment of Dignity Battalions.[2]
The United States overthrew Noriega's regime in Operation Just Cause on December 20, 1989. Endara had by this time taken refuge in the Panama Canal Zone which was under American Military control, where a judge swore him in as president.
Endara is also noted for staging a public hunger strike to call attention to poverty and homelessness left in the wake of the Noriega years. He visited then U.S. President George Bush, pressing for $1 billion in emergency relief aid and cooperative measures to curtail the Panamanian narcotics trade. He restored confidence in the banking industry, reduced unemployment, and struggled to address narcotrafficking and violent crime. His administration has faced criticism for being dominated by wealthy businessmen or by initially overshadowing U.S. influence.
Later, Endara distanced himself from the party on account of differences of opinion with party leader Mireya Moscoso, Arias' widow. He ran in the 2004 Panamanian presidential election as the candidate of the Solidarity Party. He finished second to Martín Torrijos, receiving 30.9% of the vote.
He later founded his own political party Fatherland's Moral Vanguard Party, and was an official candidate for the Panamanian general elections.[3] In that election, he came in a distant third place, receiving 2.3% of the vote.
Just a few months later, on September 28, 2009, Endara died aged 73 at his home in Panama City, of a heart attack.[4]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Francisco Rodríguez |
President of Panama 1989–1994 |
Succeeded by Ernesto Pérez Balladares |