Due to his political views he was initially jailed by the right-wing government of Omar Torrijos when it took power after a coup in 1968.
[1] In the aftermath of the Leyla Express and Johnny Express incidents in 1971, in which two freighters bearing Panamanian flags were seized by the Cuban government on suspicion of transporting arms and mercenaries to Cuba, Escobar led the Panamanian delegation to Cuba to negotiate the release of the captain of one of the freighters.
[1] In 1979 he became one of the founders of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD), the political arm of the Panamanian military, and served as its president.
"[3] The negotiations were unsuccessful,[3] and after the United States invasion of Panama in 1989 removed Noriega from power, Escobar was jailed.
When the PRD came back to power after elections in 1994, Escobar was made an advisor to the foreign affairs minister.