Image and Authority: Political Trials Captured in Cuba and Panamá, 1955-1959

Abstract

The assassination of Panamanian President José Antonio Remón in 1955 and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 brought about public trials of immense political importance. The article compares the ways legal processes in Panamá and Cuba were represented in the media, with particular focus on visual images. In both cases, images were key to the shifting of public sensibilities and understandings of the trials. But although in both Cuba and Panamá legal consciousness became highly politicized, in the former, the trials solidified public support for the young Revolution, whereas in Panamá, the notion of a corrupted legal process undermined the regime as a whole.