Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino

Barletta Vallarino attended North Carolina State University, where he obtained in 1959 a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering, and later an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics. In 1971, he received a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. The title of his PhD dissertation was "Costs and social benefits of agricultural research in Mexico".[2]

From 1968 until 1970 and 1973 until 1978, Barletta was one of General Omar Torrijos's trusted advisers as minister of planning and economic policy, president of the national banking commission and member of Panama's negotiation team on economic aspects, for the Panama Canal treaties. From 1978 to 1984, he was World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean. In late 1983, he was approached by President Ricardo de la Espriella about running for president as de la Espriella's successor.

In February 1984, President Ricardo de la Espriella unexpectedly resigned the office and was succeeded by his vice president, Jorge Illueca, who did not enter the race for a full term. Ardito Barletta ran as the coalition candidate backed by the National Guard, and his candidacy had the support of the government. Opposing Ardito Barletta and the Unión Nacional Democrática (UNADE) coalition was the Democratic Opposition Alliance (Alianza Democrática de Oposición, or ADO) and its candidate, the 82-year-old veteran politician Arnulfo Arias, who had previously been president three times, each time being ousted from office by a military coup.

1984 election poster in support of Barletta

The election was the country's first after 16 years of military rule, something that had been agreed to during US negotiations that led to the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977. Ardito Barletta was among the negotiators for Panama. The campaign proved to be bitterly contested, with both sides predicting victory. Arias and his backers claimed that Ardito Barletta was conducting the campaign unfairly. In addition, most of the media—television, radio stations, and newspapers—favored the government coalition. For example, only one of the country's five daily newspapers supported the ADO.

Voting day on 6 May 1984 was peaceful, but violence led by Arias's supporters broke out the next day in front of the Legislative Palace, where the electoral board was meeting. One person was killed. The opposition charged that there was electoral misconduct and fraud. The candidates for congress on both sides challenged the vote count at the district level, delaying the final count. Meanwhile, both sides claimed victory. When the initial results showed Arias, who had the support of much of the opposition, on his way to a landslide victory, Noriega halted the count.[3][4] After brazenly manipulating the results, the government announced that Barletta had won by a slim margin of 1,713 votes.[5] Independent estimates suggested that Arias would have won by as many as 50,000 votes had the election been conducted fairly.[6] More than 60,000 votes were not included in the final count.[7] On 16 May 1984, the district results were finally tallied by the Electoral Tribunal and Ardito Barletta was declared the winner by 1,713 votes, defeating Arias. The U.S. government was aware of this manipulation, but chose not to comment on it.[8] Noriega's rule became increasingly repressive,[3] even as the U.S. government of Ronald Reagan began relying on him in its covert efforts to undermine Nicaragua's Sandinista government.[9] The U.S. accepted Barletta's election, and signaled a willingness to cooperate with him, despite recognizing the flaws in the election process.[10] During the election, the American Institute for Free Labor Development and the National Endowment for Democracy additionally provided around $20,000 in support of activists involved with Ardito Barletta's campaign, despite opposition from certain U.S. legislators such as Representative Hank Brown and Senator Edward Zorinsky, alongside Ambassador Everett Ellis Briggs.[11][12]

Arias's platform emphasized the need to reduce the influence of the military in Panamanian politics. Ardito Barletta's platform emphasized the reestablishment of democracy, economic development, and honest and efficient government. The US government declared that Ardito Barletta's victory must be seen as an important forward step in Panama's transition to democracy.

Ardito Barletta, a strait-laced and soft-spoken technocrat, took office on 11 October 1984. In his inaugural address, the newly elected president pledged to repair the economy, fight corruption, and unite Panama's political parties. He quickly launched an attack on the country's economic problems and sought help from multilateral institutions to support an economic restructuring program. He promised to modernize the government's bureaucracy and implement an economic program that would generate a 5% annual growth rate.

On 13 November 1984, to meet the IMF's requirements for a US$603 million loan renegotiation, Ardito Barletta announced economic austerity measures, including a 7% tax on all services and reduced budgets for cabinet ministries and autonomous government agencies, including the Defense Forces. In response to massive protests and strikes by labor, student, and professional organizations, he revoked some of those measures ten days later. Ardito Barletta's headstrong administrative style also offended Panamanian politicians, who had a customary backslapping and backroom style of politicking. During his tenure, the Defense Forces promised support to his program but effectively undermined the negotiations Ardito Barletta was pursuing with industrialists, labor leaders, and other business groups to achieve some economic reforms.

While Ardito Barletta was visiting New York City, government critic Hugo Spadafora was found brutally murdered and decapitated. Spadafora had revealed that he had evidence linking Noriega to drug trafficking and illegal arms dealing. Relatives of Spadafora claimed that witnesses had seen him in the custody of Panamanian security forces near the Costa Rica border immediately before his decapitated body was found on 14 September 1985. Ardito Barletta promised to bring the killers to justice and recommended an independent commission to investigate the crime. At a meeting at Defense Forces Headquarters between Ardito Barletta and the commanders, serious discrepancies arose, leading to Ardito Barletta's resignation on 27 September 1985, after only eleven months in office. Ardito Barletta was succeeded the next day by his first vice president, Eric Arturo Delvalle, who announced a new cabinet on 3 October 1985.

The ousting of Ardito Barletta is considered to have been the beginning of the end for Noriega; Ardito Barletta had been considered the best hope for a transition to democracy by Washington. Within four years, Noriega had been thrown out of office by American military intervention.

Later on, Ardito Barletta was General Administrator of the Interoceanic Region Authority (ARI) from 1995 to 2000, an agency in charge of receiving, administrating, planning, and incorporating the former Canal Zone to national development. Today Ardito Barletta is a member of the Washington based think-tank The Inter-American Dialogue.[13]

• Panama: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors.