Delvalle claims authority in newspaper ad.

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 10

Delvalle claims authority in newspaper ad.

NZPA-Reuter New York The deposed Panamanian President, Eric Arturo Delvalle, urged the world to sever economic links with Panama in an advertisement published in the “Wall! Street Journal” yesterday. Asserting that he and not his military-backed successor was the rightful President of Panama, Delvalle called for a ban on all business dealings with Panama as part of a campaign to remove de facto ruler, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, ! Mr Delvalle 'said Gen- j eral Noriega i “illegally ) seized control of the country and, a!cting without constitutional ! authority, coerced the 1 purported appointment of Manuel Solis 'Palma to the presidency, through illegal procedures carried out ; by the National Assembly.” Mr Delvalle, recognised as president by the United States, tried to dismiss

General Noriega as chief of the 16.000-man Panama Defence Forces last week. General Noriega defied Mr Delvalle’s order and the president was ousted on Friday by the militarydominated National Assembly, which replaced him with Solis Palma, his Education Minister. Since then Mr Delvalle has been in hiding in Panama. “The Noriega regime is (not the legitimate government of the Republic of Panama and is illegal under the Constitution of the Republid,” Mr Deli valle said in the news- ' paper advertisement, . which carried the headI line “Proclamation.” He said that under his authority as President, he was ordering immediate suspension I of all payments to and jcontracts and business transactions with Panama. ' “Any fees or

other payments paid to the Noriega regime or any public agency or entity purporting to act on its behalf will not be credited as a payment to the Government of the Republic of Panama,” he said. I

, “And any person or party making such payments to the Noriega regime shall be reassessed for such payments,!as appropriate, by the Government of the Republic of Panama.” The statement, j dated March 1, said all payments to the Panama Government “should be held, until further! notice, in escrow in trust (for the Republic of Panama!” ! It said information , about withholding ! pay- ' ments could be obtained | through the Panamanian

! Embassy in Washington, run by a Delvalle! loyalist ! who has refused jto turn his job over to a Noriega I appointee.