{"id":97067,"date":"2020-03-25T11:27:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T18:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=97067"},"modified":"2026-04-20T15:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:04:05","slug":"dec-18-78-2155-panama-state-9219","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=97067","title":{"rendered":"Dec 18, 78 \u2022 2155 \u2022 Panama-State \u2022 9219"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>[<strong>Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: This document was released both as a <u><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=97067\"> State Department cable<\/a><\/u> as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as <u><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=91611\">Serial 1253<\/a><\/u> of the FBI\u2019s RYMUR release. <\/p>\n<p>[The text for this document was released in 2014 by <a href=\"https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1978PANAMA09219_d.html\">Wikileaks<\/a>. It is also available through the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260420220255\/https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1978PANAMA09219_d.html\">Internet Archive<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nPAGE 01<br \/>\nPANAMA 09219 182307Z<br \/>\nACTION L-03<br \/>\nINFO OCT-01 ARA-11 ISO-00 H-01 FBIE-00 CIAE-00 INR-10<br \/>\nNSAE-00 TRSE-00 JUSE-00 SPTA-02 SCS-06 CA-01<br \/>\nEUR-12 SSO-00 NSCE-00 INRE-00 \/047 W<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;044226 182312Z \/73<\/p>\n<p>O 182155Z DEC 78<br \/>\nFM AMEMBASSY PANAMA<br \/>\nTO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0260<br \/>\nINFO AMEMBASSY BERN<br \/>\nAMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE PANAMA 09219<br \/>\nEO 12065: N\/A<br \/>\nTAGS: EFIN, PEOPLES TEMPLE, PN<br \/>\nSUBJECT: PEOPLES TEMPLE BANK ACCOUNTS<br \/>\nREF: (A) STATE 316647, (B) GEORGETOWN 4326<\/p>\n<p>1. AS GOP [GOVERNMENT OF PANAMA] OFFICES AND PANAMANIAN BANKS CLOSED ON SATURDAY, E\/C COUNSELOR AND CONSUL MADE CALLS PER REFTEL (A) MORNING OF DECEMBER 18. FIRST SAW MINISTER OF PLANNING AND ECONOMY GONZALEZ, EXEC SEC OF PANAMANIAN BANKING COMMISSION DE DIEGO, AND LEGAL ADVISORS TO MINISTRY AND COMMISSION. GOP OFFICIALS EXPRESSED AWARENESS OF IMPLICATIONS OF CASE BUT PLEAD THAT PANAMANIAN BANKING SECRECY LEGISLATION PREVENTS THE GOVERNMENT FROM FORCING BANKS&#8217; COOPERATION. GONZALEZ EXPRESSED KEEN AWARENESS OF IMPLICATIONS OF CASE AND SAID THAT GOP WOULD LEND ITS &#8220;GOOD OFFICES&#8221; TO EMBASSY&#8217;S EFFORTS TO BLOCK ACCOUNTS.<\/p>\n<p>2. EMBOFFS ALSO SAW OFFICERS OF PANAMA SUBSIDIARIES OF UNION BANK OF SWITZERLAND AND SWISS BANK CORPORATION (SBC). BOTH BANKS&#8217; OFFICERS SAY THAT THEY BLOCKED ACCOUNTS WHEN THEY LEARNED OF DEVELOPMENTS IN GUYANA.<\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nPAGE 02 PANAMA 09219 182307Z<\/p>\n<p>SBC OFFICER ALSO VOLUNTEERED THAT HIS BANK (A) HAS BLOCKED ALL GUYANESE ACCOUNTS AND (B) HAS RECEIVED SEVERAL REQUESTS, INCLUDING FROM CALIFORNIA SOURCES, TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNTS. HE CONFIRMED RECEIPT OF COMMUNICATION FROM GUYANA (REF B), BUT REPEATED THAT NO REQUESTS FOR DISBURSEMENT OF ASSETS HAVE BEEN HONORED.<\/p>\n<p>3. WE UNDERSTAND THAT HEAD OFFICES OF BOTH BANKS MAY BE IN CONTACT ON NEXT STEPS. RESPONSIBLE SBC OFFICER IS LEGAL ADVISOR DE GRAFFENRIED, AT BASEL.<\/p>\n<p>4. ACTION REQUESTED:<\/p>\n<p>A. GONZALEZ SUGGESTED THAT EMBASSY HIRE LOCAL COUNSEL AND REQUEST THAT ACCOUNTS BE BLOCKED. DOES DEPARTMENT WISH FORMALLY TO TAKE THIS STEP?<\/p>\n<p>B. SWISS BANK CORPORATION SAID IT WOULD REINFORCE THEIR BLOCKING OF ACCOUNT IF THEY COULD BE PROVIDED EVIDENCE OF DEATH. CAN DEPARTMENT PROVIDE DOCUMENTATION THAT WILL SUPPORT SWISS BANKS? <\/p>\n<p>MOSS [Ambler H. Moss, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Panama]<\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Editor\u2019s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 1253 of the FBI\u2019s RYMUR release. [The text for this document was released in 2014 by Wikileaks. It is also available through the Internet Archive.] LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 01 PANAMA 09219 182307Z [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":96735,"menu_order":149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-97067","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97067"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136747,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97067\/revisions\/136747"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}