NEW GOVERNMENT FOR 1931 IN PANAMA

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19268, 3 January 1931, Page 1

NEW GOVERNMENT FOR 1931 IN PANAMA

SUDDEN REVOLUTION OVERTHROWS PRESIDENT (United Press Assn.-—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received January 3, 11.30 a.m.) PANAMA CITY, January 2. A sudden revolt to-day overthrew the Government of President Florencio Flarmodio Arosemena, and the capital of the Republic passed into the hands of a revolutionary Junta headed by Senor Harmadio Arias. Ten persons were killed and a score wounded in fighting about the palace and police station. The President this afternoon resigned, and the Panama Supreme Court appointed Senor Arias, President of the Bar Association, as head of the Provisional Government and as “ Secretary of the Government and Justice in charge of the Government.” A manifesto, signed by representative citizens, has been issued as the pledge of the revolutionaries to respect all international obligations. Machine-guns Used. The youthful revolutionists rose against the Government at three o’clock in the morning, captured the President, and proclaimed a provisional regime. President Arosemena is in rebel hands. As the Presidential palace fell hostilities centred around the central police station, as well as the palace. Loyal Federal police met the insurrectionists with machine-gun fire, but were unable to prevail against them. Mr Hartwell Ayres, an American newspaper correspondent, was shot in the abdomen by a stray bullet. He is not expected to live.

President Arosemena took office on October 1, 1928.