Background
Arnulfo Arias Madrid was born on 15 August, 1901 in Penonomé, Panama.
government official politician president
Arnulfo Arias Madrid was born on 15 August, 1901 in Penonomé, Panama.
Educated in the United States and the recipient of an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Was the president of Panama from October 1, 1940, to October 9, 1941; November 24, 1949, to May 10, 1951; and October 1-12, 1968. He was deposed each time.
Arias went into exile in Argentina but became a viable political force again in the highly nationalistic atmosphere of postwar Panama. Perhaps having won the disputed 1948 election, Arias, after the death in the following year of President Domingo Diaz Arosemena, was installed in the presidency by National Police Chief José Antonio Remón Cantera, who had thwarted his election in 1948. Arias instituted a regime of incredible corruption and attempted to establish another dictatorship. Impeached by the National Assembly and Supreme Court, he refused to vacate the presidential palace, and a three-hour gun battle with the National Police resulted in 16 deaths.
Arias won the presidency again in 1968, but when he tried to remove certain National Guard officers, he became victim of a military coup for the third time, this time led by Omar Torrijos Herrera. Thereafter, he continued to lead the opposition to the Torrijos government and its successors.
Arias entered politics as a leader of Acción Comunal, which staged the revolution of January 1931 that sought to displace the old oligarchy and U.S. influence at the same time. Arias and his followers were professionals and bureaucrats who displayed a nationalism that was not just anti-Yankee, but was opposed to all foreigners, including the Antillean blacks who had migrated to the Isthmus as railroad and canal workers. During the 1930s Arias expressed pro-Nazi attitudes and avowed admiration for Benito Mussolini.