Student Relates Experiences in Noriega's Panama Here in America, we've come to take for granted such luxuries as safe neighborhoods and stable governments. We tend to forget that, in many other countries, citizens have no guarantees on freedom of speech and a fair trial. Panama , under the Noriega regime , was such a countiy, and Julio Cruz, a junior accounting major from Panama City , experienced it first hand. "It wasn 't like Panama was a terrible place to live," says Julio, who came to Hare.ling in 1990, just months after the American invasion of Panama. "But people were afraid to deal with the government or the milita1y police. You never knew what would happen to you if you made them mad. Most of the people I knew thought (Noriega) was a bad guy, but they didn't think it too loud! On the news , you would see big rallies with lots of people supporting him, but all those people in the crowd would be employed by the government , and would lose their jobs if they didn 't cheer for him at the rallies . "Many uprisings were attempted hefore the Americans overthrew him, but they were not very well organized , and Noriega always crushed them quickly. My uncle was arrested for participating in one of these rebellions. His squadron all decided to revolt .. .. He Kevin Goldman - Searcy, AH Jeff Goodson - Jackson , TN Brent Goodwin - St. Charle, , TL William Grady- Golden. CO Atny Grant - Dalton, GA Sara Griffin - Russellvill e. MO Cindy Griffith - \XI. Memphi~ , AB Scott Grigg - Bentonv ill e, AR Brian Hall - Salem. IN Mark Hall - St. Marys, WV Tara Hall - Portland, OR Daniel Hammitt - Flint, Ml Ronnie Harlow - Philadelphia , PA Brooks Harrell - El Do rado, AR Dena Harrell- Ft. Smith . AR 222 Juniors Juni o r.Julio Cruz enjoys a sunny afternoon in front o f the student center. Julio was a junior accounting major f"rom Panama City. wasn ·r sure if he wanted to go along with it , but he decided to at the last minute. Of course it failed. and he disappeared for about three months before we found out he was in jail. We had just assumed he was dead so , of course , we were all very happy. He was in jail the night of the invasion and we were all afraid for his safety. We stayed up that night praying and wondering what was happening. "The next morning he walked all the way to our neighborhood on foot after the Americans freed him. It was really neat because there were people in t he neighborhood who didn't even know him, but had known he was in jail , and when they saw him they ran out and started hugging him. We had the whole neighborhood congratulating him and hugging and laughing together. "Some of my Latin friends were mad because the 'gringos ' were the ones who came in and got rid of Noriega. I guess they felt that we should have done it ourselves. But almost everyone was glad the Americans came in and helped us, because many people in Panama had tried the same thing and died. And after they got rid of him, they stayed.and acted as a police force and took care of the city while we got a new government in place. "We have a good president now, Guillermo Endara , and I think he will be ve1y good for the country. There were no tourists at all before , but now when I go home , I see many people coming down to see what the real Panama is like. I think the country will take time to be the way we want it to be , but it is slowly improving." - Ryan Gjovig
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