Military assistance (in million of dollars) during the same period comes to the following totals: Question 42. Please briefly describe the amounts and kinds of U.S. foreign aid proposed to be extended to the Republic of Panama during fiscal year 1978. Answer. For fiscal year 1978 total economic assistance channeled through A.I.D. is estimated at $23.1 million. The basic thrust of the economic assistance program remains essentially as described above, except that two additional development loans amounting to $20 million are contemplated for a Watershed Management project and a Rural Development program. Grants amounting to $1.2 million for population planning and training activities are also contemplated. A PL 480 Title II Grant program of $1.9 million is also programmed. CHAIRMAN'S GENERAL COMMENT ON RESPONSES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Although the answers of the Department of State are in some respects useful to the subcommittee, I cannot help but note for the record that in many instances the Department appears to have done its level best to provide as little information as is possible without failing to respond entirely. This approach unfortunately typifies the attitude at the Department of State which seems to have prevailed throughout the negotiation of the proposed Panama Canal treaties and the ensuing debate of the treaties. Frankly, I am of the opinion that the treaties are such a bad bargain for the United States and that the negotiations for the treaties were handled so ineptly that the Department of State must feel some embarrassment regarding the entire matter and therefore must feel some need to be less than fully candid with the Congress in discussing the treaties and the circumstances surrounding their negotiation. STATEMENT OF LELAND L. RIGGS, JR. FOR THE USE OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SEPARATION OF POWERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE Leland L. Riggs, Jr., being duly sworn, deposes and says as follows: I, Leland L. Riggs, Jr., am a retired Special Agent in Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. involving narcotics intelligence collection in Central America. I first became a criminal investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Customs in January, 1964, after having spent 8 years as a highway patrolman. I was first assigned by the Bureau of Customs to duties in California where I conducted narcotics smuggling investigations for a period of 64 years. Thereafter, I was promoted from Customs Special Agent to Senior Customs Representative and was transferred to Mexico City, Mexico. Inasmuch as I am bilingual and speak Spanish, my assignment to Mexico was deemed to be advantageous to the agency. While assigned to Mexico City, I had sole responsibility for Customs narcotics intelligence gathering and for conducting follow-up investigations forwarded to me by our domestic offices of investigation. My area of responsibility included not only the Republic of Mexico but additionally all of Latin America. However, 95% of my investigative time concerned either Mexico or the Republic of Panama. During the time I was in Mexico in 1970 and 1971, I conducted several investigations in Panama. Subsequently, in June of 1972, I was appointed Customs Attache and instructed to establish an office in the American Embassy in Panama City, Panama. This occurred during the period when the entire Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs agents force had been expelled persona non grata from Panama. I served as Customs Attache until July 1, 1973, at which time the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed and I then also assumed command of the Panamanian functions of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs when the Bureau of Customs narcotics functions were merged with those of the BNDD. In short, I became the Special Agent in Charge of the combined office. I left Panama on June 17, 1974, to become the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA District Office in Brownsville, Texas. Thereafter while on temporary assignment as Project Manager for a special DEA operation in Colombia directed against clandestine cocaine processing laboratories in Colombia, on November 30, 1975, I was attacked, beaten, and pushed off a retaining wall to a street below and suffered several fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle, kidney damage, and assorted cuts and bruises. The DEA subsequently retired me on August 24, 1976, for medical disability reasons. When I first began conducting investigations in Panama, the BNDD Agent in Charge advised me that we had to be very careful about informing Panamanian government officials concerning our work since they were corrupt and also involved in narcotics trafficking. I soon learned from personal experience that this advice was sound. During September, 1970, I traveled to Panama to conduct a follow-up investigation regarding a Yolando Sarmiento case involving shipments of heroin from Panama to New York. Although I do not have presently in my possession intelligence reports prepared by me at that time, I do recall certain aspects of the case. Yolanda Sarmiento reportedly was smuggling approximately 100 pounds of heroin monthly into the United States. This heroin was reported to be stored in the Colon Free Zone in the Republic of Panama. The Colon Free Zone is a large, fenced-in, heavily guarded section of Colon, Panama, on the Atlantic side where duty-free items are displayed in numerous stores for purchase by persons and businesses based primarily in South America. I was advised by U.S. Canal Zone officials and a confidential source that the Guardia Nacional controlled and guarded this enclosed area. I later did manage to gain entrance with a U.S. Canal Zone official; however, we were only permitted to go into the showcase areas of the various stores. The Colon Free Zone is entered at a gate guarded by uniformed members of the Guardia Nacional. Although the Government of Panama does have a Customs Office and there are Panamanian Customs Agents, Panamanian Customs does not have responsibility for control of the Free Zone. During 1970, United States Customs Agents in New York were able to effect the arrest of Yolanda Sarmiento, Emilio Diaz Gonzales, and others; however, Yolanda Sarmiento was released on bail, subsequently fled the country, and became a fugitive in Argentina. Gonzales escaped from prison in New York and is believed also to have fled the country. As best I recall, Emilio Diaz My efforts to continue a follow-up investigation of the Sarmiento case were essentially unsuccessful because of the problems inherent in free movement within the Colon Free Zone resulting from the control of the Free Zone by the Guardia Nacional of the Government of Panama. : During my trips to Panama, I became aware of a BNDD investigation concerning the Panamanian chief air controller, Juaquin Him Gonzales. Juaquin Him was reportedly directing heroin from Panama into Texas and using his official capacity in the Government of Panama to facilitate the movement of this heroin. He was subsequently indicted by a U.S. Grand Jury in Texas and was arrested when he entered the U.S. Canal Zone to attend a softball Juaquin Him was tried and convicted for facilitating the transportation of narcotics into the United States. game. I understand that the arrest of Juaquin Him caused considerable dissension between the Ambassador and the U.S. narcotics agents in Panama. I experienced similar problems in connection with the Raphael Richard-Moises Torrijos case. I learned of the Richard-Torrijos case after my assignment as the Customs Attache to the American Embassy in Panama. In fact, I became directly involved in the investigation concerning Moises Torrijos, now Panamanian Ambassador to Spain, and Raphael Richard Gonzales, the son of the then-Panamanian Ambassador to Taiwan. Richard was arrested on the evening of July 8, 1971, at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in possession of 151 pounds of heroin. Immediately prior to his arrest, he claimed diplomatic immunity and asserted that his suitcase could not be opened and searched due to his diplomatic passport. A U.S. customs inspector advised him that he was accredited as a diplomat in Taiwan, not in the United States, and therefore had no diplomatic status in the United States. Also arrested that evening was Nicolas Polanco, a reported chauffeur-bodyguard of Moises Torrijos. Moises Torrijos was then the Panamanian Ambassador to Argentina, and he is the brother of Dictator Omar Torrijos. |