Commentary
The Panama Canal
Military Stewardship of the Environment
Restoring and Supporting Democracy
End of an Era
U.S. Military Regional Activities
Panama The Country
Related Web Sites and Literature
Dedications
ARI worked closely with the U.S. Southern Command and the American Embassy for preparing for transfer of military bases, facilities, and land since 1993. The first military property transfer with ARI was the Coco Solo medical clinic near Colon on the Atlantic side May 31, 1993. By 1995, transfer ceremonies for military bases and other major facilities became a regular occurrence through 1999. (See the related sections, U.S. Military Role in Continued Panama Canal Treaty Implementation (1986-1999) and U.S. Military Property Transfers to Panama (1979-1999) Under Panama Canal Treaty Implementation for details on property transfers.) (Click here to view sidebar of the general scope of properties and the pace of transfers.)

Before taking any actions on previously transferred properties, ARI contracted in mid-1990s with Nathan and Associates to develop a General Plan (Plan General de Uso, Conservacio y Desarrollo del Area del Canal) and a Regional Land-Use Plan (Plan Regional para de Desarrollo de la Region Interoceanica). The latter is a land-use plan to manage the land and natural resources within the Interoceanic Region (principally the Panama Canal Area -- what was left under U.S. control after the dissolution of the Canal Zone in October 1979).

Those plans were approved by Panama's Executive Branch and by the National Assembly in 1997.

ARI's administrators.

Juan Blau, a businessman, was named the first administrator of ARI in 1993 by the ARI board of directors during President Guillermo Endara's administration. His first task was to develop ARI from the framework developed by an ad hoc special commission (during the preceding year under Panamanian businessman J.J. Vallarino) and the February 1993 law creating ARI. Blau resigned the post months after his appointment without any public explanation for doing so.

Jose Chen Barria, former comptroller during the latter part of the Endara administration, was appointed ARI administrator in 1994. His appointment became embroiled in political controversy when Ernesto Perez Balladares, shortly after winning the presidency in May 1994 and installed in September the same year, indicated he should have had a voice in the selection (although the law had created ARI as an independent agency to be outside of politics). Eventually Barria was forced to resign.

Nicolas Ardito Barletta -- former President of Panama (1984-1985 during the Noriega regime), former minister of economic planning during the Torrijos regime, and a former vice president of the World Bank -- was appointed administrator in May 1995 during the Perez Balladares administration. Also, modifications to the law creating ARI (including expanding the number of members of ARI's board of directors) was passed by the National Assembly. (Perez Balladares' Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) having won control in the National Assembly in the May 1994 elections ensured easy passage of the changes to the ARI law.)

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