What is true about Torrijos is that he had a social conscience, a sense of concern for the peasant class, for the workers, and for that reason, some called him a socialist and others called him a communist.

The American analysts would be referring to Torrijos all the time as a Marxist.

This in the thick of the Cold War was the same thing as calling someone the devil himself.

I remember once telling Torrijos about what the Americans were saying, and he began to laugh.

The only possible way you could call me a communist would be in matters of love.