Torrijos Herrera, Omar

Torrijos Herrera, Omar, 1929-81, military leader, dictator of Panama (1968-78). As a lieutenant colonel, he led, together with Col. Boris Martínez, the coup (1968) that ousted President Arnulfo Arias. In 1969, he exiled Martínez, and promoted himself to brigadier general. Later that year, following a coup attempt by younger officers, he tightened his grip on the country. He instituted wide-ranging economic and social reforms, espousing birth control, expropriating land, and attacking Panama's powerful families. In Sept., 1972, an elected assembly granted Torrijos full civil and military powers for six years. He successfully negotiated new Panama Canal treaties (1977) with U.S. President Jimmy Carter that transferred the Canal Zone and ultimately the canal to Panamanian control. In 1978, he chose not to run for president, though he remained as commander of the National Guard. He died in a plane crash.

(born Feb. 13, 1929, Santiago de Veragua, Pan.—died Aug. 1, 1981, near Penonomé) Virtual dictator of Panama (1968–78). He entered the national guard in 1952 after military studies in Venezuela and the U.S., rose to the rank of general, and came to power in 1968 in a coup d'état. A nationalist and populist, he was one of the few Latin American heads of state to visit Fidel Castro in Cuba, though he suppressed leftist labour agitators and students at home. In 1977 he achieved his supreme goal when U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter signed two treaties agreeing to transfer the Panama Canal and Canal Zone to Panamanian sovereignty in 1999. He died in a plane crash while on a military inspection tour.

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Colonel Florencio Flores Aguilar was a Panamanian army officer and the military ruler of Panama from 1981 to 1982.

Flores served as Commander of Panamanian Guardia Nacional (and de facto dictator of Panama) following the death of General Omar Torrijos in July 1981. He served until his forced retirement in March 1982, when he was succeeded by Colonel Rubén Darío Paredes.