Omar Torrijos

Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 - August 1, 1981) was a Panamanian army officer and military ruler of Panama from 1968 to 1981. Torrijos was often referred to in the American press as the military strongman of Panama. A son of Torrijos, Martín Torrijos Espino, won the Presidential election on 2 May 2004 and took office on September 1, 2004.

Death

Torrijos' death generated charges and speculation that he was the victim of an assassination plot. For instance, in pre-trial hearings in Miami May, 1991 Noriega's attorney Frank Rubino was quoted as saying "General Noriega has in his possession documents showing attempts to assassinate General Noriega and Mr. Torrijos by agencies of the United States". Those documents were not allowed as evidence in trial, because the presiding judge agreed with the government's claim that their public mention would violate the Classified Information Procedures Act. More recently, former businessman John Perkins http://www.johnperkins.org/about_the_author.htm, alleges in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that Torrijos was assassinated by American interests, who had a bomb planted aboard his aircraft. The alleged motive is that some American business leaders and politicians strongly opposed the negotiations between Torrijos and a group of Japanese businessmen led by Shigeo Nagano, who were promoting the idea of a new, larger, sea-level canal for Panama. Manuel Noriega, in America's Prisoner, confirms that these negotiations had evoked an extremely unfavorable response from American circles. Torrijos died just months after Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, in strikingly similar circumstances.

Related Topics:
Frank Rubino - John Perkins - Japan - Shigeo Nagano - Manuel Noriega - Jaime Roldós Aguilera

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