But nobody's talking about hard work, discipline and sweat.' 'There's a Latin tradition of a god or a patriarch or a caudillo who comes to unite everyone and make everything better. 'The mentality was that everything would be solved overnight by the invasion,' said Ebrahim Azbat, the new civilian police chief. In large part, the problem may be that the invasion sent hopes soaring so unrealistically high that disillusionment was inevitable.
The economy has improved little by little, but paradoxically, people's frustrations seem to rise apace. What remains is a deeply troubled place, still heavily dependent on American troops for its stability. invasion that ousted Noriega, Panama's euphoria has faded.
'Democracia! ' people shouted at the top of their lungs.īut a year after the spectacular U.S. Manuel Antonio Noriega gave himself up, they danced and waved Panamanian flags in the streets and hailed the American invaders as heroes.
