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Panama Organizing the New Republic
The provisional governing junta selected when independence was
declared governed the new state until a constitution was adopted in
1904. Under its terms, Amador became Panama's first president.
The constitution was modeled, for the most part, after that of
the United States, calling for separation of powers and direct
elections for the presidency and the legislature, the National
Assembly. The assembly, however, elected three persons to stand in
the line of succession to the presidency. This provision remained
in effect until 1946, when a new constitution provided for direct
election of the vice president. The new republic was unitary;
municipalities were to elect their own officials, but provincial
authorities were to be appointed by the central government. The
most controversial provision of the constitution was that which
gave the United States the right to intervene to guarantee
Panamanian sovereignty and to preserve order.
A two-party system of Liberals and Conservatives was inherited
from Colombia, but the party labels had even less precise or
ideological meaning in Panama than they had in the larger country.
By the early 1920s, most of the Conservative leaders of the
independence generation had died without leaving political heirs.
Thus, cleavages in the Liberal Party led to a new system of
personalistic parties in shifting coalitions, none of which enjoyed
a mass base. Politics remained the exclusive preserve of the
oligarchy, which tended to be composed of a few wealthy, white
families.
Having successfully severed their ties with Colombia, the
secessionists of Panama's central government were soon faced with
a secessionist problem of their own. The Cuna of the San Blas
Islands were unwilling to accept the authority of Panama, just as
they had been unwilling to accept the authority of Colombia or
Spain. The Panamanian government exercised no administrative
control over the islands until 1915, when a departmental government
was established; its main office was in El Porvenir. At that time,
forces of the Colonial Police, composed of blacks, were stationed
on several islands. Their presence, along with a number of other
factors, led to a revolt in 1925.
In 1903 on the island of Narganá, Charlie Robinson was elected
chief. Having spent many years on a West Indian ship, he began a
"civilizing" program. His cause was later taken up by a number of
young men who had been educated in the cities on the mainland.
These Young Turks advocated forcibly removing nose rings,
substituting dresses for
molas (see Glossary), and
establishing dance halls like those in the cities. They were
actively supported by the police, who arrested men who did not send
their daughters to the dance hall; the police also allegedly raped
some of the Indian women. By 1925 hatred for these modernizers and
for the police was intense throughout the San Blas Islands.
The situation was further complicated by the factionalism that
resulted when Panama separated from Colombia. The leader of one of
these factions, Simral Coleman, with the help of a sympathetic
American explorer, Richard Marsh, drew up a "declaration of
independence" for the Cuna, and on February 25, 1925, the rebellion
was underway. During the course of the rebellion, about twenty
members of the police were killed. A few days later a United States
cruiser appeared; with United States diplomatic and naval officials
serving as intermediaries, a peace treaty was concluded. The most
important outcome of this rebellion against Panama was a treaty
that in effect recognized San Blas as a semiautonomous territory.
Data as of December 1987
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