Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "486500486",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Panama, Situation Report 26",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500486"
}

{
    "id": "486500486",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500486",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Panama, Situation Report 26",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500486",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-01-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-01-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-01-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 49,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500486",
    "naId": 486500486,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1948-03-01",
            "month": 3,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 13,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875510/875510-01-013.tif",
    "mediaId": "e6bf2aa3dce2ae1a",
    "ocrText": "SECRET\ntunities to influence the outcome of elections. Since this means, in effect, that the\nparty or group in power can hardly be ousted by electoral methods, the golpe de fuerza\nis a familiar Panamanian political technique. It is, indeed, hardly too much to\nsay\nthat a President who has gained power through a cleverly managed coup is likely to\nbe respected and followed.\nFreedom of assembly, of speech, of religion, and of the press are guaranteed\nby the constitution, as is private property; and these guarantees are for the most\npart observed by the Panamanian Government. The constitution expressly rejects the\nprinciples of economic laissez faire, recognizing that \"relations between capital and\nlabor are an affair of ordinary law\", guarantees the \"conditions necessary for a normal\nlife\" to the worker, and \"compensation proportionate to investment\" to capital. Labor's\nrights to strike and to a minimum wage are also guaranteed.\nA unique feature of the Panamanian Constitution is the provision that vir-\ntually excludes all foreigners save US citizens from retail trade and authorizes a\nsimilar exclusion from wholesale trade. This provision reflects the power of the shop-\nkeeper and the trader in Panamanian political life.\n3. POLITICAL PARTIES.\nBoth the composition and the alignment of Panamanian political parties undergo\nconstant change. At the present time it is possible to identify seven political parties\nwhich are important enough to have, in one way or another, an impact upon events,\nand can, therefore, be expected to influence the 1948 Presidential elections.\na. The United Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Unido - PLU).\nAs the major political support of the Jiménez Administration, the United\nLiberal Party regards the 1946 Constitution as the embodiment of its guiding prin-\nciples. Despite the party's broad official pronouncements concerning the benefits to\nbe gained from state control and planning, its actual practice indicates a strong prefer-\nence for laissez faire in economic matters. It opposes the \"infiltration\" of Panama by\nforeigners (an emphasis from which, however, it excepts US citizens), pleads for popular\nacceptance of the idea of government-sponsored public works (its reasoning on this\npoint is along pump-priming and developmental lines rather than socialist lines),\nand favors certain specific measures (completion of the Pan American Highway, in-\ntensified inter-American cooperation, lower taxes, a balanced budget, etc.). There is\nreason to believe that it is decidedly more sympathetic to the US point of view on the\ndefense-sites problem than day-to-day Panamanian policy (which it controls) would\nsuggest, apparently because it fears that it will alienate its political following if it\naccepts US proposals without prolonged negotiation. The party's leader is President\nEnrique Jiménez, and its 1948 Presidential candidate is Domingo Diaz Arosemena.\nb. The Authentic National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revolucion-\nario Autentico - Autenticos - Arnulfistas).\nThis is the personal party of Arnulfo Arias, who, when ousted from the\nPresidency in 1941, carried with him into this new organizaton the allegedly \"authentic\"\nI-3\nSECRET"
}