Credit Tim Padgett / WLRN.org
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WLRN.org
Sonny Holtzman today
It seems that every Panamanian exile that I know has considered this the liberation of Panama. The bank itself – I recall some inquiries. What South Florida Bank didn’t have depositors from Central or South America? And they were looked at. But the bank itself, there was never any action taken. There were never any consent orders or anything like that.
You went on to become the founding chairman of the Miami Dade Expressway Authority. And in 2000, you received Panama’s Order of Balboa – the country’s highest honor for civilian foreigners – for having helped restore democracy there. What does that honor mean to you?
Kind of gratifying for just a small town guy who came to Miami.
That’s right – you came to Miami from western Pennsylvania in 1952 as a law student. Did you ever think you’d be part of the Latin American exile intrigue Miami has become known for?
No, not really. Not in the beginning. Not when I became a member of the board of Dadeland Bank. No, I don’t think anyone that came to Miami in 1952 would have believed that.
The Panama invasion marked one of the few times Latin American exiles here in South Florida were able to see the actual overthrow of a dictatorship back home. Where did the Panamanians succeed where the Cubans and Venezuelans, for example, thus far haven’t?
Keeping your foot on the accelerator is a big factor. But so is Lady Luck. I think a lot of the [exile] groups who are here now understand both those things.
Sonny Holtzman is still, at age 89, an attorney in Miami. Among the other exile owners of Dadeland Bank, the late Guillermo “Billy” Ford became vice president of Panama, and Roberto Eisenmann became that country’s most important newspaper publisher. Manuel Noriega was extradited back to Panama in 2011 and died there in 2017.
Source link : https://www.wlrn.org/show/latin-america-report/2019-12-16/how-a-miami-bank-became-hq-for-efforts-that-led-to-panama-invasion-30-years-ago
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Publish date : 2019-12-16 03:00:00
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