Panama’s New Government Slowly Gains in World Acceptance : Envoys: President Endara’s diplomatic corps has re-established ties with 17 nations.

WASHINGTON —  Although it is still regarded with skepticism by many nations, the newly installed government of Panamanian President Guillermo Endara has fielded a diplomatic corps that is winning acceptance in Washington and among multinational organizations.

So far, Endara’s government has established official relations with the United States and 16 other nations, with Japan joining the group Friday. Notably absent from the list, however, are Panama’s Latin neighbors other than Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Among former Soviet Bloc nations, only Poland has extended recognition to the new government, which was sworn in shortly after U.S. troops launched their early morning invasion of Panama on Dec. 20.

But the major European states--Britain, France, West Germany and Spain--officially have accepted the change in government. Other nations to establish ties with Endara’s administration are South Korea, the Philippines, India, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Malta.

Panama’s embassy in Washington and its missions to the United Nations and Organization of American States are operating with skeleton staffs headed by men with little diplomatic experience.

Indeed, a former Panamanian diplomat warned that Endara must recruit experienced civil servants if he is to survive the problems facing his nation.

“They’re going to have to take people who worked in the previous government,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition that he not be identified. “They’ll have to get all parties behind the government if it’s going to make it.”

Despite initial opposition to the new U.S.-backed government in Panama, the Organization of American States on Wednesday accepted the credentials of Endara’s envoy, Lawrence Fabriga Chewning.

Panama’s new ambassador to Washington, Carlos Rodriguez, presented his credentials to President Bush last week and immediately returned to Panama to begin work as head of the reconstruction group named by the new regime.

At the United Nations, where the General Assembly voted 75 to 20 to adopt a resolution calling the invasion a “flagrant violation of international law,” Eduardo Vallarino is expected to present credentials to Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar on Monday.

In addition, Panama is expected to send new representatives soon to international finance and defense organizations.

Roberto Leyton, a delegate to the Inter-American Development Bank under the Noriega government and a former ambassador to the OAS, notified the bank president that he will give up his seat on request even though his contract runs to June. Panama has no resident representative at the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.

Lt. Col. Luis Ruiz, the former Panamanian government’s delegate to the Inter-American Defense Board, returned to Panama before Christmas. A board spokesman said he will not return.

None of Panama’s three initial appointees to diplomatic posts here and at the United Nations has had ambassadorial experience, and their staffs are virtually nonexistent.

Rodriguez, a businessman who ran unsuccessfully for vice president of Panama in 1984, has extensive experience in banking in Panama and Florida. That background is expected to help him push for financial aid to rebuild an economy badly hurt by the U.S. invasion and the anti-Noriega economic sanctions that preceded it.

Vallarino, like Rodriguez an exile in recent years, was named by Endara from an academic position at Harvard University. Even before he was able to take possession of the Panamanian mission at the United Nations from its former occupants, Vallarino met with other Latin envoys and reported a friendly reception.

After the defection of a career officer in the mission enabled him to enter the office, Vallarino obtained floor credentials and was present on the floor of the General Assembly to lobby against the Cuban-Nicaraguan resolution condemning the invasion.

The support of nonaligned nations normally would have produced more than 100 votes in favor of the resolution, but 40 abstentions brought the majority down to only 75, a symbolic victory for Vallarino and the U.S. diplomats who worked with him.

In Panama City, meanwhile, two newspapers seized by the military more than two decades ago reappeared Friday with editorials defending the U.S. invasion.

Also, the Chamber of Commerce, staunchly opposed to Noriega during his rule, reopened its doors after being closed for a year and nearly destroyed in the invasion fighting.

At the reopening ceremony for the chamber, President Endara said that Panama must “fight for freedom every day” despite Noriega’s surrender to U.S. authorities.

The newspapers El Panama America and Critica Libre had editions on the streets Friday with pro-U.S editorials. The dailies were seized by the old National Guard in 1968, shortly after the military coup that installed the late Gen. Omar Torrijos as leader. In recent years, the papers were used as pro-Noriega mouthpieces.