PANAMA: U.S. TO SET UP DRUG CENTER

PANAMA CITY, PanamaDespite a series of street protests, months of
delicate negotiations have led to a plan for a U.S.led antidrug center on
an American military base here.

The center intended to monitor drug smuggling throughout Latin America
after the United States turns over its bases to Panama at the end of 1999
has been a hotly contested topic in Panama. Although most Panamanians
support the center, some have protested what they see as the United States
going back on its word to pull its soldiers out of the country.

They recall the 1989 U.S. invasion, and say their government is turning the
country over to foreigners.

But on Tuesday, U.S. diplomat Thomas MacNamara and Panamanian official
Jorge Ritter signed an agreement in Miami allowing the center to go ahead,
Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares said. "

We have reached an agreement, and now we will enter into a phase in which
we will invite other Latin American countries to participate," Perez
Balladares said, adding that Mexico, Brazil and Colombia have been
especially interested in the plan. The president didn't give details of
the agreement, but said they would be released soon.

In Washington, the State Department said there are still "some details
which need to be worked on before the texts are made final. The negotiators
will meet again next week for that purpose." Before it takes effect, the
agreement still will have to be approved by Panama's legislature and by a
majority of Panamanians in a referendum next year.

Panama and the United States began to talk about the center in 1995, but
formal negotiations began only this year. It will be built on what is now
Howard Air Force Base, a rolling campus with nature trails and bike paths
that is one of the most beautiful U.S. military bases in Panama.

In a small building at the base, the U.S. military has been conducting
operations similar to what will go on at the antidrug center since 1992.
The small, windowless building known as the "Pizza Hut" is filled with
computers and communications equipment to monitor airplanes and ships
smuggling drugs from South America and the Caribbean toward the United
States.

Those operations will remain largely intact under the antidrug center,
which has prompted many Panamanians to accuse their government of letting
the United States maintain a military presence after it has promised not
to.

"This is a continuation of the bases," said Carlos Abadia, leader of the
opposition Civil Renovation Party, which has held several street protests
against the plan.

Perez Balladares has repeatedly insisted the antidrug center is different
from a military presence.

Neither side said how many U.S. military officials would stay on at the
antidrug center, but Panamanian news media reported Wednesday that the
number would be as high as 2,000.

A poll by the newspaper La Prensa published Monday showed 67 percent of
people surveyed approved of the center, while only 25.3 percent
disapproved. The telephone survey of 1,182 people was conducted Dec. 13 14
and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

Copyright Los Angeles Times