We answer only to God

by Thomas L. Pearcy

This book makes unprecedented use of Panamanian sources to study the military. It argues that their control of politics is not a temporary aberration but a natural result of the country's sociopolitical development. In exploring just how and when the military began dominating Panama's government, Pearcy fundamentally reinterprets the nation's modern history. He traces the slow and inevitable collapse of civilian rule during the first half of the century.