Ricardo de la Espriella

Ricardo de la Espriella Toral (born 5 September 1934) is a Panamanian politician who was the President of Panama from 31 July 1982 to 13 February 1984. Early career Ricardo de la Espriella is a Stanford-trained economist. Espriella was the general manager of National Bank of Panama from 1970 to 1978, when he became Vice President in 1978, when the all-powerful National Guard pressed then President Aristides Royo, whom they considered to be a dangerous leftist, to resign before his term ended in 1984. Since de la Espriella was head of the National Finance Commission before Royos's resignation. Being a competent financial manager, he posed no threat to the dominant influence of the National Guard, and wasted no time in referring to them as "a partner in power". Thus, de la Espriella was a type of "puppet" president and remained so under the brutal Manuel Noriega (Panama's first Chief of Intelligence, and then guard commander when Rubén Darío Paredes resigned that title to start his own electoral campaign). Presidency When de la Espriella took the oath as Interim President, the then-Commander Paredes immediately decreed that certain Panamanian newspapers be shut down, including La Prensa, which had become the country's conscience. Paredes ordered certain hoodlums to attack the newspaper, smashing the windows, typewriters, the head of a pressman, and an unfortunate unintended victim – the director of the Central American Institute of Business Administration, who had just come by with a press release from his institution. His suit and tie caused him to be mistaken for the "La Prensa" director.