He then joined with industrialist Carlos Eleta Almaran, scion of one of the "20 families', to found the National Renovation Movement (MNR), which in 1982 changed its name to the Conservative Party.
The party mounted an expensive publicity drive and was accused of fraudulently boosting its membership figures”.
With backers among Panama's wealthy elite, PALA initially supported the presidential aspirations of National Guard chief Gen. Rubén Darío Paredes in 1984.”[5] The PALA eventually dropped him as a candidate and hacked the National Democratic Union (UNADE) and its candidate Nicolás Ardito Barletta in the 1984 election.
[8] In 1989 it allied with the National Liberation Coalition (COLINA) and its candidate Carlos Duque, PALA was expected to be allocated 1 seat in the post-US invasion legislature in 1989.
It joined the United People Alliance (APU) coalition behind official candidate Ernesto Pérez Balladares in the 1994 Panamanian general election.