ABSTRACT

In 1968, the National Guard of Panama deposed the newly elected president and took control of the country. In some ways, the negotiations regarding the Panama Canal and the Labor Code became the most important issues for the regime. A new treaty favorable to Panama would settle once and for all the thorny issue of a foreign power having sovereign rights over part of the country's territory. The Torrijos regime came into power after the Panamanian ruling elite suffered a loss of hegemony and lost control of the political system. An index constructed by Neil R. Richardson to measure dependence in Latin America based on the amount of foreign trade, investment, and aid for the period between 1950 and 1973 ranked Panama highest in dependency. The Panamanian governing elite reached what Poulantzas has termed a "representational crisis," which resulted in its loss of hegemony. The 1972 Labor Code had a special significance for the Torrijos regime, both symbolically and in real terms.