Background
Omar Torrijos was born on13 February 1929 in Santiago. His parents were schoolteachers.
Omar Torrijos was born on13 February 1929 in Santiago. His parents were schoolteachers.
He attended the military academy of El Salvador between 1947 and 1952.
He had the rank of lieutenant colonel in the National Guard at the time of the 1968 coup which overthrew the ten-day government of Amulfo Arias Madrid. Relatively unknown outside of Panama, within the country he enjoyed a swashbuckler’s image as a counterinsurgency officer. He vaulted past several senior officers and consolidated his control within six months, becoming a general.
Torrijos remained final arbiter of Panamanian affairs until his death in an airplane crash in 1981.