Background
Alfaro Ricardo on 20 August in 1882 in Panama, Colombia.
politician president public official
Alfaro Ricardo on 20 August in 1882 in Panama, Colombia.
He was serving as Panama’s ambassador to Washington in 1931 when he was called home to assume the presidency following the overthrow of President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena. Alfaro dealt well with an ugly situation caused by Arosemena’s arbitrary and corrupt rule and by the general economic crisis, and he presided over the 1932 presidential campaign with honesty and fairness. It was one of the rare times in Panamanian history that the incumbent president did not try to dictate the outcome.
Alfaro returned to be ambassador to the United States. The Hull-Alfaro Treaty of 1936 removed some of the most offensive stipulations of the 1903 Panama Canal treaty, particularly the U.S. right of unilateral intervention, and gave Panama improved economic terms. His role in the treaty made Alfaro a strong candidate for president in 1940, but he withdrew in reaction to the violent and demagogic tactics of incumbent president Augusto Samuel Boyd and Boyd’s choice for successor, Arnulfo Arias Madrid.
Alfaro returned to public service as foreign minister in 1945 under President Enrique Adolfo Jiménez. However, when President Jiménez yielded to U.S. demands and signed a treaty extending the use of thirteen wartime military bases for twenty years, Alfaro resigned in protest, precipitating street demonstrations and unanimous rejection of the pact by the National Assembly. The United States evacuated all the defense sites in 1948.
Alfaro capped his career as a member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.