PANAMA: Guilty as Charged

The capital was quiet and tense last week while the National Assembly was sitting in judgment on deposed President Arnulfo Arias (TIME, May 21). When the police brought him into the chamber, he settled into a chair, elaborately polished his eyeglasses, flipped open a copy of the bestselling Kon-Tiki. He kept his eyes on the book during the reading of the indictment and during the prosecutor’s withering, 50-minute speech, which the gallery loudly cheered. Then cheers turned to jeers as Arnulfo Arias stood up to speak. Making no defense against the charges, he left his case up to the people. “Vox populi,” he said, “vox Dei” From the packed gallery came the voice of the people: “Boo!”

By unanimous vote, the Assembly found Arias guilty of violating the constitution and barred him for life from holding public office in Panama. The prisoner was taken back to jail to wait out a threatened charge of shooting a police officer during the popular uprising that overthrew his regime.