Escobar Bethancourt, Romulo

▪ 1996

      Panamanian politician (b. Sept. 5, 1927, Panama City, Panama—d. Sept. 28, 1995, Panama City), as chief negotiator for the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties, helped his country regain control of the Canal Zone and partial ownership of canal operations, with an agreement to assume full ownership from the United States by the year 2000. The U.S. had gained canal rights in November 1903, just two weeks after Panama was established as an independent republic. Escobar was an able diplomat and a pro-Panama polemicist, who, despite his leftist political orientation, served under a succession of right-wing military regimes. Trained as a criminal lawyer, he ascended the ranks of Communist Party leadership and, as a result, was jailed when Omar Torrijos orchestrated a military coup in 1968. Escobar soon became a valuable political adviser to Torrijos, however, notably in the mid-1970s, during the difficult canal negotiations with U.S. diplomats under Pres. Jimmy Carter. Escobar also served as rector of the University of Panama and one of the founders, in 1979, and president of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the civilian arm of the military. He recounted the Torrijos regime in his book Torrijos: {!}Colonia americana no! (1981). With the rise to power of Manuel Noriega in 1983, Escobar remained in his post as chief political adviser and aggressively defended the dictator when the U.S. military forced his removal from power in 1989; Escobar was jailed after the U.S. invasion. When the PRD returned to power after the 1994 elections, Escobar became an adviser to the minister of foreign relations.

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