PANAMA: Today, Not Tomorrow .

"The word mañana will be erased from our administration," Panama's new President José Antonio ("Chichi") Remón told a crowd of 20,000 Panamanians in his inaugural address last week. Taking over a government that is $40 million in debt, Chichi promised a brisk, businesslike administration, fairer and more efficient tax collections, and a realistic budget that would permit Panama to live within its means. Most of those means are derived from the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal, which bisects his tiny (pop. 805,000) isthmian country; the new President said that cordial relations with the U.S. will be the keystone of his foreign policy, and pledged relentless opposition to Communist influences and propaganda.

Beefy, bustling Chichi Remón long ago erased the word mañana from his personal operations. He joined the police, Panama's only armed force, in 1931, and immediately began moving up. After wartime training in the U.S., he became police chief and his country's strong man in 1947. Since then, he has made and unmade five Presidents. When one of them tried to ease him out of his job in 1949, he fired the President in a pre-dawn coup. Prosperous (from cattle and other private interests) and powerful, Chichi was content to stay in the background until this year. Then he put a trusted subordinate in command of the police and ran for President. His lively brunette wife Cecilia, known as "Ceci" to most Panamanians, stumped the country for him by plane, jeep, boat, oxcart, and on foot. "I never wanted to be President, but I have to do away with this anarchy," said Chichi.