U.S., Panama Agree On Center To Monitor Drugs Some Panamanians Protest Continued Presence Of American Military

Despite a series of street protests, months of negotiations have led to a plan for a U.S.-led anti-drug 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 anti-drug 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.

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