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Carlos Duque

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Nationality
  
Panamanian


Name
  
Carlos Duque

Born
  
March 12, 1930
Panama City, Panama

Died
  
October 31, 2014 (aged 84) Panama City, Panama

Occupation
  
Businessman, Politician

Known for
  
1989 presidential campaign

Political party
  
Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD)

Promesas juan carlos duque


Carlos Alberto Duque Jaén (March 12, 1930 – October 31, 2014) was a Panamanian businessman and politician who was President-for-Life of Panama's Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD). He was a presidential candidate for the PRD in the 1989 presidential election.

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Juan carlos duque ausencias festival de vi a 1982


1989 presidential candidacy

A former business partner of military ruler Manuel Noriega, Duque was selected by Noriega to head the pro-Noriega Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1988. The following year, he stood as the party's presidential candidate. Future PRD president Ernesto Pérez Balladares served as his campaign manager.

Duque's primary rival for the presidency, Guillermo Endara, ran atop the ticket of the Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition (ADOC), a coalition of parties opposed to Noriega. After the voting concluded, international observers reported that Endara's coalition was leading by a 3-to-1 margin, but the results were annulled by the Noriega government before counting was complete. Noriega had planned to declare Duque the winner regardless of the actual results. However, by this time Duque knew he had been comprehensively defeated by Endara and refused to go along.

The next day, Endara and one of his running mates, Guillermo Ford, were badly beaten by a detachment of Dignity Battalions, a paramilitary group supporting Noriega. Endara was struck with an iron club and was briefly hospitalized, receiving eight stitches. Images of the attack on Endara and Ford were carried by media around the world, and were credited with leading up to the US invasion that would soon follow.

Post-election career

Duque was an opponent of the 1989 US invasion of Panama which deposed Noriega, calling it "the biggest error" and urging "nationalist parties" to battle US forces. Several months after the invasion, US federal prosecutors accused Duque's company, Transit S.A., of funneling millions of dollars in kickbacks to the former ruler from a coffee-smuggling operation.

In 1999, he worked on the campaign of PRD presidential candidate Martín Torrijos, son of former military ruler Omar Torrijos. Martín Torrijos lost the presidential election that year to Mireya Moscoso, but went on to win in 2004.

References

Carlos Duque Wikipedia