Mireya Moscoso - Presidency

Presidency

Moscoso took office on September 1, 1999. Facing a PRD-controlled Legislative Assembly, Moscoso was limited in her ability to make new policy. She was also hampered by strict new restraints Pérez Balladares had passed on spending public money in the final days of his term, targeted specifically at her administration.

On December 31, 1999, Moscoso oversaw the handover of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. Her government then faced the challenge of cleaning up environmental problems in the Canal Zone, where the US Army had long tested bombs, biological agents, and chemical weapons. Remaining issues included lead contamination, unexploded munitions, and stockpiles of depleted uranium. Though Moscoso fired all of Pérez Balladares' appointments from the Panama Canal Authority and appointed supermarket magnate (and future president) Ricardo Martinelli as its head, the Authority retained its autonomy from her administration. At the same time, Panama's economy began to struggle due to the loss of income from American canal personnel.

Moscoso worked to end Panama's role in international crime, passing new laws against money laundering and supporting tax transparency. The legislation allowed Panama to be removed from international lists of tax havens. Meanwhile, violent crime rose sharply during Moscoso's tenure. In September 2000, under pressure from the US and some Latin American governments, Moscoso's government gave temporary asylum to former Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who had fled Peru after being videotaped bribing a member of its congress.

In December 2000, human remains were discovered at a Panamanian National Guard base, incorrectly believed to be those of Jesús Héctor Gallego Herrera, a priest murdered during the Omar Torrijos dictatorship. Moscoso appointed a truth commission to investigate the site and those at other bases. The commission faced opposition from the PRD-controlled National Assembly, who slashed its funding, and from PRD's president Balbina Herrera, who threatened to seek legal action against the president for its creation. It ultimately reported on 110 of the 148 cases it examined, of which 40 had disappeared and 70 were known to be murdered. The report concluded that the Noriega government had engaged in "torture cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment", and recommended further exhumation and investigation.

During her term, Moscoso was often accused of nepotism for her administrative appointments and faced several corruption scandals, such as the unexplained gift of US$146,000 in watches to Legislative Assembly members. By 2001, her second year in office, Moscoso's approval rating had fallen to 23%, due to corruption scandals and concern for the economy. That year, she attempted to pass a tax reform package through the Legislative Assembly, but the proposal was opposed by both the private sector and organized labor. In 2003, the US ambassador publicly criticized Moscoso for the growth of corruption during her term. By the end of her term, her presidency was "criticized as rife with corruption and incompetence" and "widely regarded as weak and ineffectual".

Herself barred by the Constitution of Panama from a second consecutive term, Moscoso was succeeded by her former rival Martín Torrijos in the 2004 election. Shortly before leaving office, Moscoso sparked controversy by pardoning four men—Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jimenez, Pedro Remon and Guillermo Novo Sampol—who had been convicted of plotting to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro during a 2000 visit to Panama. Cuba broke off diplomatic relations with the country, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez recalled the nation's ambassador. Moscoso stated that the pardons had been motivated by her mistrust of Torrijos, saying, "I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela, and there they were surely going to kill them there." Moscoso also issued pardons to 87 journalists for defamation convictions dating back as far as 14 years. On July 2, 2008, all of the 180 pardons Moscoso had issued were overturned as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.