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Viewing cable 08PANAMA737, PANAMA: BALBINA WINS PRD PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION,

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08PANAMA737 2008-09-09 20:03 2011-05-31 00:00 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Panama
VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHZP #0737/01 2532003
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 092003Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2501
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000737 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PM
SUBJECT: PANAMA: BALBINA WINS PRD PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION, 
PARTY CLOSES RANKS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for 
reason 1.4 (d) 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1.  (U)  Balbina Herrera won the Democratic Revolutionary 
Party (PRD) primary election September 7, becoming the 
official presidential candidate for the largest party in the 
country. Once Juan Carlos Navarro and Laurentino Cortizo 
conceded, all the candidates met and joined President Martin 
Torrijos, who is also PRD SecGen, at PRD headquarters for a 
joint television appearance. Torrijos and Herrera, 
accompanied Navarro and Cortizo and PRD National Executive 
Committee (CEN) members on stage, made powerful calls for 
party unity in order to ensure a PRD victory in the May 2009 
elections. In her address Herrera positioned herself as a 
candidate of continuity who would continue implementation of 
Torrijos' "New Nation (Patria Nueva)," while offering a 
message of hope for those who have been left out of the 
recent economic boom in Panama. She specifically highlighted 
the current foreign and economic policies as being on target. 
End Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
A Victory From the Heart 
------------------------ 
 
2.  (U)  Torrijos' former Minister of Housing Balbina Herrera 
won the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) primary 
election September 7, becoming the official presidential 
candidate for the largest party in the country.  Herrera won 
48.7% of the vote, while Juan Carlos Navarro won 39.1%, and 
Torrijos' former Minister of Agriculture Laurentino Cortizo 
won 9%. The PRD reported 60% participation, which, given 
party membership of over 670,000, indicates that over 400,000 
people voted in the primary. Herrera gave an emotional 
victory speech, announcing to Navarro and Cortizo that she 
was now turning the page on a rough primary camaign, and 
that they had the door open to them. Herrera, whose campaign 
slogan was "Torrijista from the Heart," - a reference to 
former Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos, not his son the 
current President -  described herself as a "daughter of the 
process", who had been given the opportunity to rise through 
education as a result of the policies of PRD founder Omar 
Torrijos. She called on businessmen to realize that, while 
they had a right to benefit from the economic policies of the 
government, they also had a responsibility to see to it that 
the benefits of economic development spread to the middle and 
lower classes of society. On the 31st anniversary of the 
Carter-Torrijos Treaty, she noted that this treaty had not 
only given Panama the resources to confront its social 
inequalities, but had put its relationship with the U.S. on a 
foundation of mutual respect. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Torrijos and Balbina Call for Unity 
----------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C)  A brief media war broke out just before 7pm, when 
the Navarro campaign apparently began leaking information 
that the race was very close. Herrera's campaign countered by 
leaking unofficial results that favored her. Torrijos, acting 
all night in his capacity as PRD Secretary General, was in 
the PRD electoral command post receiving the results all 
night. As soon as Navarro's team began releasing their 
information, PolCouns witnessed Torrijos call Navarro in, 
after which the reports ceased. There was then a two hour 
delay between Herrera's victory address, and the official 
announcement at PRD headquarters, as PRD officials tried to 
convince Navarro, who cried during his concession speech, to 
participate in a joint television appearance with Herrera and 
the other candidates. Finally, at 9 pm, Torrijos addressed an 
enthusiastic crowd of PRD and GOP officials, with Herrera, 
Navarro, Cortizo and several minor candidates on stage with 
him. Torrijos gave a passionate speech in favor of unity, 
saying the opposition could, "keep dreaming" about a PRD 
split, which brought on enthusiastic applause. Torrijos 
presented the primary itself as a PRD victory, as the party 
was able to mount two strong campaigns, and generate a 
massive turn-out for an internal election. Herrera then 
followed with a speech that meshed well with Torrijos', 
reinforcing a message of continuity. She hugged Navarro, and 
insisted on her message from the earlier speech that she had 
"turned the page," and that there was now only one party, 
united and strong. Navarro's and Cortizo's presence smiling 
 
and relaxed despite the emotion and tension of the day, 
provided a powerful visual to back up Herrera's and Torrijos' 
message. Herrera also publicly apologized to Navarro and 
Cortizo for her campaign having challenged one of Navarro's 
campaign ads, and getting it pulled off the air. 
 
------------------- 
Continuity and Hope 
------------------- 
 
4.  (U)  In her appearance with Torrijos, Herrera was even 
more explicit than in her earlier speech in sending a message 
of continuity. She told businessmen not to fear, saying the 
current economic policy was "correct". She also called the 
current foreign policy "correct." She repeated her call for 
the fruits of economic growth to reach the middle and lower 
classes, but pointed out that she was now not just the 
candidate of the PRD, but of independents and even supporters 
of the opposition who believed in that message of social 
justice. She said there would be room for all social sectors 
in her campaign. She defined the challenges of her eventual 
government as improving the health care, education and 
transportation systems, while pushing for decentralization of 
the government. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
5.  (C)  The tough primary campaign - perhaps the toughest in 
terms of public attacks among PRD candidates - revealed 
significant strain between those members moved by Herrera's 
message of social justice and upward mobility and the middle 
and upper class supporters who rallied around Navarro's 
message of "strong arm (mano dura)" and to Cortizo's 
intellectual campaign. Given the danger that a real split 
could have developed, and as Navarro's melt down seemed to 
encourage it, Torrijos and Herrera stepped in and brought 
things back under control before any real damage was done. 
The political theater of the PRD event was well 
choreographed, and executed, in front of a hometown crowd 
that knew that division is the PRD's worst enemy. At the same 
time, Herrera presented a powerful vision of hope for the 
increasingly restless Panamanian lower classes, despite her 
defense of much of the Torrijos government's work. The hope 
was not just contained in her promises, which included a 
government evenly divided among men and women, but by her own 
background. In the view of many Panamanians, Herrera's 
persona -- not male, not white, not wealth and not elite -- 
is the primary evidence that she will be a change agent. She 
has a real chance to portray the "process" from which she was 
born as one that championed a meritocracy, and equal 
opportunity, thus obscuring some of its darker aspects, with 
which she has also been identified. Herrera's most 
significant immediate challenge, however, will be getting her 
message out beyond her base so it can be heard over the strum 
und drang created by the opposition and independents fearful 
of a return to the Noriega years. 
 
STEPHENSON