Ernesto Pérez Balladares González-Revilla (born June 29, 1946), nicknamed El Toro ("The Bull"), is a Panamanian politician who was the President of Panama between 1994 and 1999.
Educated in the United States, Pérez Balladares worked as a banker before becoming part of the government of military ruler Omar Torrijos; in 1989, he also served as campaign manager for the pro-Manuel Noriega presidential candidate Carlos Duque. He was elected president in 1994 as the candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), in a close three-way race with Arnulfista Party candidate Mireya Moscoso and salsa singer Ruben Blades.
Pérez Balladares' term was notable for free-market reforms and the privatization of government services. He also rehabilitated a number of officials from the Noriega years and sought a closer alliance with the United States than the previous administration of Guillermo Endara. Following a failed constitutional referendum to allow him a second term in office, Pérez Balladares was succeeded by Moscoso in 1999.
In 2009, prosecutors opened an investigation into charges of corruption dating to Pérez Balladares' time in office. He was placed under house arrest the following year, making him the first former Panamanian president to be arrested, and in October 2010 was charged with money laundering. A judge dismissed the charge against him in April 2011. In February 2012, Pérez Balladares was convicted of slandering comptroller Alvin Weeden by calling him a narcocriminal, and sentenced to a $3,000 fine or a year in prison.
Background
Pérez Balladares received master's degrees in the US at the University of Notre Dame and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. From 1971 to 1975, he was credit officer of the City Bank for Panama and Central America. He is married to Dora Boyd de Pérez Balladares.
Political career
Pérez Balladares served under military ruler Omar Torrijos as the Minister of Economy and Finances. In March 1979, he was one of the co-founders of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). He was picked to be the Secretary of the Party in 1982. However, in 1984, he clashed with new military leader Manuel Noriega, and passed several months in exile in Spain.
Pérez Balladares later served as campaign manager for Carlos Duque, Noriega's chosen candidate for the 1989 presidential election. The opposition candidate, Guillermo Endara, was reported by international observers to be leading the vote by a 3-to-1 margin, but the results were annulled by the Noriega government before counting was complete. During the December 1989 US invasion of Panama, however, Endara was certified the election's winner and sworn in as the next president of Panama. During the invasion, Pérez Balladares was briefly detained and interrogated by US forces for his association with Noriega, but was then released.
Pérez Balladares himself stood as a candidate in the 1994 presidential election for the PRD, opposing Mireya Moscoso of the Arnulfista Party and the salsa singer Rubén Blades, who was then president of the party Papa Egoro. Pérez Balladares' opponents sought to emphasize his connection with Noriega, broadcasting pictures of the two together. Pérez Balladares denied the link, describing the current PRD as "diametrically opposed" to Noriega's policies. Instead, he worked to position himself as a successor to Torrijos, who was regarded as a national hero. The incumbent Arnulfista Party, meanwhile, was seen as hobbled by dissatisfaction with the perceived incompetence and corruption of Endara's government. He ultimately won the election with 33% of the vote, with Moscoso receiving 29% and Blades receiving 17%.
Presidency (1994–1999) Pérez Balladares's government was characterized by pro-free market policies. He included a number of free-market economists in his cabinet. Under his rule, both the electric and telephone companies were privatized and in 1997, Panama entered the World Trade Organization. In 1995, he reformed Panama's labor code, an action protested by 49 unions and causing his popularity to drop. Other unpopular actions by Pérez Balladares included giving $35 million in back pay to Noriega's paramilitary Dignity Battalions and doubling the salaries of his cabinet despite the country's ongoing poverty.
He rehabilitated a number of former Noriega officials in his government, including his Housing Minister, a doctor accused of helping to torture political prisoners during Noriega's rule, and his First Vice President, Tomas Altamirano Duque. Pérez Balladares ultimately pardoned more than 200 people for crimes committed during the Noriega years, calling it a step toward national reconciliation.