Background
Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón was born in Panama on 1 March 1905. Chiari was the son of former president and long-time boss of the Liberal Party, Rodolfo E. Chiari.
government official politician president
Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón was born in Panama on 1 March 1905. Chiari was the son of former president and long-time boss of the Liberal Party, Rodolfo E. Chiari.
Received his education in Panama.
Chiari’s first brief time in office occurred when Colonel José Antonio Remón, chief of the National Police, was consolidating power. Remón ousted Chiari when he refused to follow orders. The assassination of Remón in 1955 reversed Chiari’s fortunes.
The Liberal Party had declined with the rise of Remón and of the Panameñista movement of Amulfo Arias Madrid. However, in an unprecedented achievement for an opposition candidate, Roberto Chiari won the 1960 election. Although Chiari represented a throwback to the old oligarchy, he felt it was necessary to promote economic and social change in order to avoid violent revolution.
Chiari visited the United States in 1962 and pledged support to the Alliance for Progress. However, after an effort to raise the Panamanian flag at Balboa Heights High School in the Canal Zone in January 1964 resulted in the deaths of 20 persons and the injury of hundreds, Chiari broke relations with the United States, charging the United States with aggression, before the Organization of American States and the United Nations. In time. Presidents Chiari and Lyndon Johnson issued a joint statement outlining a series of proposed treaties for resolving the Canal issue.
