Author Description

This historical work marks the aftermath of the signing of the Canal Treaties, in the Relationship of the United States and Panama. Everything originates from a handful of University students, the product of a democratic process within the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Panama, who were elected to attend to academic and national issues, through the Student Center in 1977.. The compilation by the Journalist and lawyer Rafael Pérez Jaramillo and the testimonies and contributions of Alberto Almanza, Carlos Manuel Lee Vásquez, Ricardo Eskildsen Morales, Una Alfú de Reyes, Víctor Castillo Ortega, Ángel Sánchez, Federico Ismael Ponce, Jaime Jácome de la Guardia and Alberto Cabredo. And the recognized support for the movement of Rodrigo Bernal, Juan De Mena, Juan Cristóbal Zúñiga, Rafael Zúñiga Brid, Blanca Vanegas de Jácome and Hernán Hernández. These 15 members of VANGUARDIA POPULAR and others supported the student motto of the time of "Bases No". The teachings of Professors Carlos Iván Zúñiga and Carlos Bolívar Pedreschi, both leaders at that time of the Movimiento de Abogados Independientes, stand out. After 45 years of these events, this narrative explains in detail the confrontations of the students against the military during the period of the dictatorship in which reigned a climate of persecution, assassinations and exiles. The struggles for the promotion of freedom of expression and democratic values during the years of the negotiations of the agreements with the United States were also a constant in the student movements. The causes of conflict that should have been resolved in the 1977 Treaties were not fully resolved and that is why this book aims to urge present and future generations of Panamanians to take up the banner of struggle to achieve total national sovereignty.