Getting to Know Omar

AT ONE POINT during the Panama Canal treaty negotiations, Omar Toreros received unexpected advice from an unusual source, Filed Castro. The ubiquitous Cuban leader called his friend Omar--the military leader who had brought Panama's dream of ruling the canal to fruition--to urge "prudence and caution" in Panama's increasingly complicated external affairs.

One hopes that today's Sandpits leaders and their foes in the White House listen to Filed, but given the impulsiveness which seems to characterize all relations in the complicated world of Central American politics, both groups are likely to turn a deal ear Even General Toreros, one of the region's more responsible leaders of late, had trouble following the counsel proffered by Castro It the negotiations for the return of the Canal failed, he promised, there would be notes. "I have only the alternative of crushing them of leading them," he told author Graham Greene "I will not crush them."

But the canal treaties did succeed, thanks to the perseverance of Toreros and other Panamanians The General's patience was a rare commodity, but then Torrijos was a rare individual. As Graham Greene notes in his portrait, Getting To Know The General, Torrijos was a lone wolf on a continent noted for brutal military leaders, a general who earnestly preferred democracy to dictatorship, and a man who rarely used force because his skills as a politician rarely made it necessary. His domestic achievements were substantial but his international achievements were stupendous: in a decade of rule before his 1981 death in a plane crash he recovered the canal and made Panama a leader of the "Contadina group," the alliance of four Latin nations which has advocated moderate solutions to the economic and military problems that are crippling Central America.

Greene does justice to his very special subject, a man whom, he admits in the book's foreword, "I had grown to love." While touring the countryside with the general, he sees Torrijos the politician, yielding to irate farmers on the price of crops. Later we see the General's humanitarian side as he builds a complex for refugees from other, less benevolent military rulers. When Greene accompanies him to Washington to sign the canal treaties, we see Torrijos the diplomat, delivering a pointed yet polite address to the U.S. Senate. But mostly we see Torrijos the person, confiding in Greene his loves, his fears and most of all his dreams for the future of Central America and U.S.-Latin American relations. Greene is very effective in painting Torrijos as an optimistic man with "the charisma of near despair" at his chances of living to see his dreams come true.

GREENE'S treatment of Panama is less successful. Getting To Know The General is an account of four visits, none longer than three weeks, which Greene made between 1976 and 1980 Though the General was Greene's host, the writer spent most of his time visiting the far corners of the country accompanied only by the fascinating Chuchu, a Marxist math professor who was Torrijos' bodyguard But Greene's travel writing falters Characters float in and out without explanation and personal relationships are never resolved. Greene's major preoccupation while in Panama, if we may judge from the repeated mention it receives, is the search for a good rum punch But the numerous bad ones seem to have logged his memory Certainly they limited his contact with ordinary Panamamans, who make few appearances in Greene's narrative.

Instead of Panamamans we meet the revolutionary elite of Central America, from Damel Ortega, a member of Nicatagua's ruline runta, to 'Marcial' the nom deguette of the Ho Chi Minh of the Salvadoran revolution In his description of these figures Greene forgets Castro's advice to Torrijos Prudence and caution are precisely what is lacking in his glowing as counts of his meetings with these leaders While Greene clearly shares Torrijos' dream of a social democratic Central America he does not explore the threat that Ortega and Marcial pose to this dream. Marcial, who killed himself last year, was no more a social democrat than Jesse Helms, and Ortega's claim to peace, love, and understanding has, in the years since Torrijos' death, lost some of its merit. While Greene's attitude toward the United States, which for years refused him permission to enter this country, is openly critical, there are other forces in the region which act in opposition to the General's hopeful vision of the future. These forces Greene chooses to ignore.

Greene, whose prolific output of thinking man's thrillers has taken him to many places as confused as Central America, should have known better than to take the words of Ortega and Marcial at face value. But they are not the point of the book. While Getting To Know The General is dedicated to "the friends of my friend, Omar Torrijos," its real goal is to eulogize the Panamanian leader. To the list of the General's accomplishments, not the least of which was setting Panama on the road to becoming only the second Central American nation to form a lasting democracy, Greene adds a deeply personal, very moving look at the man. Early in the book, Greene explains his interest in Latin America by noting that politics there were usually "a matter of life and death." He understands the importance of men like Torrijos in eliminating the legacy of violence in a region which has recently seen more than its share. By patience and moderation, Omar Torrijos gave Panama a way out of bloodshed. If only there were more like him...