U.S.-PANAMA ACCORD OVER DRUG CENTER SOURS

Troops would remain after bases close

PANAMA -- Late last year, the president of Panama announced that his
government had ``reached an agreement'' with Washington on a drug
interdiction center that would permit American troops to stay here after
the United States gives up control of the Panama Canal and the last U.S.
military bases on Dec. 31, 1999.

Now, however, the accord has clearly unraveled. President Ernesto Pérez
Balladares has denounced the document as ``an ill-conceived pile of
paper,'' a referendum on it scheduled for July has been indefinitely
postponed, and at a news conference this month, U.S. and Panamanian
negotiators could not say whether they could produce a replacement.

Neither government has made public the text of the accord to set up a
Multinational Counter-Narcotics Center at what is today Howard Air Force
Base, on the west bank of the Panama Canal.

At a news briefing in Washington on April 16, State Department spokesman
James Rubin said that ``for internal reasons the government of Panama has
demanded extensive textual changes'' and that ``we have agreed to some
restructuring and clarifications.''

A draft document published in the Mexican newspaper Excelsior drew intense
criticism in Panama and revealed at least some of the objections forcing
Pérez Balladares to reverse himself. The chief aggravation is a provision
permitting the 2,000 or so U.S. soldiers expected to be stationed at the
center to engage in ``other missions.''

To some within the governing party, and elsewhere in Latin America, that
would give the United States a legal basis to intervene militarily in the
region at its discretion. Language that allows, but does not require,
countries taking part in the center -- the United States obviously most of
all -- to share the intelligence they gather with other members has been
criticized equally.

``The text had in it things that have nothing to do with the drug war but
which are functions typical of a military base of a great power,''
complained Ricardo Arias Calderon, a former vice president.

Diplomats said reservations about the accord were expressed by several
neighbors, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and
Venezuela.

The United States, clearly impatient, suggests Panama may not be the only
acceptable site, that Honduras or U.S. military bases in Florida are
alternatives.

Largely overlooked in the dispute is that the United States and six South
American countries are already cooperating in a drug detection and
interdiction program operated out of Howard Air Force Base.

Since June, the program has monitored air and sea shipments of cocaine from
South America.

Still, said Brig. Gen. Howard DeWolf, director of that task force, Panama
has advantages none of the other possibilities can match.

``Panama provides us a presence and a platform in the region, a
steppingstone to forward deploy down range'' in South America, he said.
``We can be located in Miami, but that would not be the same as being truly
engaged with our partners in the region.''