More Votes than Crowds

Going into Panama's presidential election, the candidate who drew the crowds was Arnulfo Arias, 62, the messianic ex-President and self-proclaimed champion of the masses. But when the cheering stopped last week, the man who got the votes was Marco Aurelio Robles, 58, the government candidate and cousin of President Roberto F. Chiari, who constitutionally cannot succeed himself. In a stunning upset, Robles swept most of the backland provinces and sliced into some urban strongholds where Arias was supposed to be unbeatable. The final count: Robles 134,627, Arias 123,186.

Cattle & the Canal. The son of a judge, Robles displays none of the big money usually associated with political success in Panama. Though his kinsman Chiari is one of the country's richest men, Robles himself lives with his schoolteacher wife and three children in a mortgaged, three-bedroom house in Panama City. He held a string of government jobs before Chiari appointed him Minister of Government and Justice in 1960. Panamanians quickly found him to be an honest, extremely determined administrator. When he noticed that stray cattle were causing a number of serious auto accidents and that nobody was doing anything about it, Robles ordered National Guard patrols to shoot all cattle found on highways. Influential cattlemen raised a storm but finally fenced in their herds.

On the stump during the campaign, Robles was no match for Arias and his fiery oratory. But he strongly supported the Chiari government's demands for revision of the canal treaty with the U.S. and pledged to "rescue for our country the commerce of the Canal Zone, which should have been rightfully ours since 1903." In the slums and backlands, he promised to provide unemployment compensation and some moderate reforms in housing and schools. Repeatedly, he professed independence of the country's powerful ruling elite: "I'm not an oligarch, and not responsible to them." That remains to be seen--Panamanian politics being what they are.

Up to the People. Thwarted and embittered, Arnulfo Arias immediately cried theft, claimed that the government had stolen the victory. His supporters charged that in several rural precincts, Arias ballots failed to arrive in time for anyone to vote for him. In Chiriqui province, a man wearing the uniform of Panama's National Guard reportedly scared away Indian voters with pistol shots in the air. Arias' lawyers are also investigating the voting in two provinces where government figures are said to show that Arias failed to win a single precinct.

Many Panamanians expect tense days before Robles assumes office on Oct. 1. Some angry Arias supporters were calling for a nationwide general strike and threatening to take to the streets. Arias himself was playing it cool. "I am convinced that I won the election," said he. "But I intend to do nothing about it. I will let the people do it." At week's end a national electoral board met at the Legislative Palace to begin reviewing the returns, while National Guard troops in battle dress stood guard.

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