PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Panamanian legislators took the first step toward eliminating the army as a legal force in a country that has spent much of the last 23 years under military rule.
The National Assembly voted 45-7 Monday in favor of a constitutional reform that would eliminate the armed forces in Panama.
The proposed amendment must be approved by two consecutive legislatures and by the people in a national referendum.
The next legislature will be sworn in Sept. 1.
The Panamanian Defense Forces, headed by former dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, were dismantled after the December 1989 U.S. invasion and the country now has no army.
But opposition parties say the country must re-establish a national army to meet conditions of the Panama Canal Treaty. The treaty specifies that Panama must defend, maintain and protect the canal when the United States hands over full control of the waterway in the year 2000.
President Guillermo Endara, who proposed the constitutional reform, wants to replace the Panamanian Defense Forces with a 'demilitarized Public Force' not affiliated with any political party or movement.
Endara and others say a Panamanian army is not needed to defend the canal. The treaty allows the United States to defend the canal after it has been handed over to Panama.
Panama has been ruled by the military for most of its recent history. Gen. Omar Torrijos took power in the late 1960s and controlled the country up to his death in a plane crash in 1981. Noriega and his Defense Forces controlled the country throughout most of the 1980s. Noriega's regime was toppled in the U.S. invasion.