Panama's president vetoes law declaring anniversary of US invasion a 'day of mourning'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Panama's president vetoes law declaring anniversary of US invasion a 'day of mourning'
The Associated Press
Published: February 29, 2008

PANAMA CITY, Panama: President Martin Torrijos has vetoed a law that would have made the anniversary of the United States' 1989 invasion of Panama a national day of mourning, Panama's foreign minister said Friday.

The measure was part of a larger package that called for a "truth and reconciliation" commission to investigate how many people died in the invasion — a provision that Torrijos said would violate Panama's constitution, which does not permit the legislature to create such committees, Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis told reporters.

Torrijos informed National Assembly President Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, who authored the bill, of his veto in a note in mid-February, Lewis said. The legislature had unanimously passed the bill on Dec. 20, the 18th anniversary of the U.S. invasion.

Polls taken at the time of the invasion showed that an overwhelming majority of Panamanians welcomed intervention, which rid them of dictator Manuel Noriega. But many have since come to consider the U.S. operation a blow to national dignity.

Panama's government estimates that as many as 500 civilians were killed in the invasion, while human rights groups and independent investigators put that number at several thousand, with thousands more displaced from their homes.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/29/america/LA-GEN-Panama-US-Invasion.php

---

Son of assassinated President Martin Torrijos (according to Confessions of an Economic Hitman author, John Perkins), Martin Torrijos of Panama, and his American associate.

Need to learn more about the Panama invasion by President _{George H. W. Bush?} If you're interested, take one hour, 31 minutes to view this online video of the Academy Award winning documentary, The Panama Deception, narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery.

You may want to buy it for future reference.

On edit, whoops, forgot to include link to The Panama Deception:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446387292666223710&q=Panama+%2B+invasion&total=88&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

[Submariner]

1. I move there this Fall for the Canal expansion construction project

I hope the residents aren't going to move in to some sort of "Death to America" mindset because of the way we have screwed them in the past.

[roody]

5. The Panamanians are lovely people and will not

screw with you the way the US has screwed with them. In fact, they are selling their country to those who will pay. Look! The U.S. killed Martin's father and he is sucking up just the way Bush expects him to.

[ArfDogMNO]

9. They like americans here. They don't like chinese much, and many are unhappy with effectively

unlimited colombian immigration.

[Make7]

2. What are the chances this veto will be overridden?

In theory it should be possible considering the original legislation passed unanimously. However, if I were to bet, I would bet against that happening. It seems unlikely that the 'powers that be' actually desire the formation a "truth and reconciliation" commission.

Many years ago, I read a book called The U.S. Invasion of Panama: The Truth Behind Operation 'Just Cause'. It was put together by an independent (non-sanctioned) commission into the invasion. They were never able to come up with accurate casualty figures. Their estimate of the death toll was 1,000 to 4,000. (I just looked it up on google books - a large portion of the text seem to be available there.)

I doubt if the people of Panama (or the United States) will ever get a true accounting of the invasion. Certainly not from any of the mainstream media reporting.

- Make7

[roody]

6. The Panamanians were present and many know

exactly what happened.

[Judi Lynn]

7. If you take the time to watch the documentary linked in the O.P., I believe you'll see

(if my memory serves correctly) Panamanians saw dead citizens shoved into mass graves. (It's been a while since I watched it last.)

As mentioned in roody's post, Panamanians who lived through it know very well how many of them are murdered.

Government atrocity figures are ALWAYS, IN EVERY CASE, wildly different from the numbers the people themselves know are GONE from their lives FOREVER. It's in the government's interest to minimize the lethal effects of its massacres. As long as attempts to acknowledge the blood-lusting carnage done by _{George H. W. Bush} can be suppressed that's exactly what we're going to see.

[Make7]

11. The last time I watched 'The Panama Deception' was many years ago...

... so I don't really remember it too well - I am hoping to get a chance this weekend to see it again.

Perhaps I should have explained my viewpoint in more detail in my prior post. The independent commission report contained in the book that I mentioned details the official initial and final numbers of people killed in the invasion. The initial figure given by the U.S. was 84 deaths. However, based on the commission's sources there were at least 14 mass graves where people killed in the invasion were buried - one of which was discovered to contain 124 bodies when exhumed.

As far as the final figures are concerned, the U.S. claims the number of dead was 516 - this is obviously as inaccurate as their initial figure. However, the final body count varies considerably depending on the source. The International Red Cross had 1,500 - 1,600 reports of "disappeared" persons; one of the human rights organizations estimate that at least 2,000 people were killed; some local religious leaders estimate the number as being 3,000 dead.

That independent commission's report never determined an exact number - their estimate is between 1,000 and 4,000 deaths. In their investigation they talked to panamanian citizens, human rights organizations, leaders of religious institutions, etc. yet they still do not know exactly what happened.

As an example of an event in sharp contrast to the uncertainty in reported deaths in the invasion of Panama, consider what is known about the victims of the September 11th attacks. According to this source, the number of confirmed dead is 2,948; the reported dead is 24; and the reported missing is also 24. Every single name is listed on the website. This is very different than a commission investigating the invasion of Panama giving an estimate of between 1,000 and 4,000 deaths.

Perhaps further investigations of the invasion have been able to determine more precisely how many were killed, injured, and displaced; but to my knowledge the actual numbers are still being covered up by the governments of the U.S. and Panama. This is what I meant when I said I doubt if there will ever be a true accounting of the invasion.

Obviously the people of Panama know that many were killed and injured by an illegal invasion. They also know that large numbers of people were displaced because their homes and neighborhoods were destroyed, but I do not think this means that what happened has been determined in sufficient detail. In other words, I'm not sure that anyone knows exactly what happened. Except perhaps for some people in the respective governments that would rather not have the truth come out - which may explain the veto reported on in your opening post.

- Make7

[sam sarrha]

3. Noriaga jailed 4 Bankers who were the masterminds of the Cali Drug Cartel money laundering system,

we invaded and not only released the Cali Bankers but made the bank president .. President of Panama, within 6 months the amount of cocaine shipped out of Panama increased 500%.

it was was all about Drugs and shipping the weapons for Iran Contra conspirators to be traded for cocaine, thu the canal. right before the invasion a ship full of weapons, was stopped and quarantined.

Bush41 arranged to sell over 200 shoulder launched missiles, like the ones capable of shooting down Flight 800, to the Iranians, they then bought weapons from East Germany and traded them for cocaine that started a crack epidemic. black neighborhoods were decimated and destroyed by crack and gun wielding gangs.. the neighborhoods were foreclosed and bought up by banks, refurbished and sold to yuppies, starting a housing bubble

just before the Iran contra hearings Reagan caught the fastest case of Alzheimer's in history, or maybe was just given a lobotomy, as was Casey the head of the CIA days before testifying

please dont forget about the Bu$h41 scandals, the Boys Town child white house prostitution ring that turned the white house into a brothel for pedophiles and the Contra thing. bu$h43 same thing, boys town prostitute makes the big time.. more war profiteering.. and biggest heroin crop in world history from an American invasion in Afghanistan.. with the Bu$h crime family in charge nothing changes

http://www.cerius.org/ref/BoysTown/

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=4857&name=Boystown-Franklin-Scandall-

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=88377

[ArfDogMNO]

10. You over-simplify matters, focusing on the bush/drug angle.

Noriega had seriously eroded his support in the US government when he refused to let the School of the AMericas be used to train insurgents for somewhere (don't recall where) in the mid-80's, and it got worse for him when william cayce died, as he was apparently a big support of Noriega's. Without those two items alone, maybe State would not have been allowed to indict him. THe subsequent sanctions failed utterly, though they did devastate the local economy.

[LynnTheDem]

4. "The legislature had unanimously passed the bill"

But never mind!

[ArfDogMNO]

8. wow talk about glaring inaccuracies

once I see something with multiple factual problems that even wikipedia would have caught, my bs alert goes off, even though he did in fact veto this bill. May I presume the documentary you link is equally stringent with accuracy?

"Son of assassinated President Martin Torrijos (according to Confessions of an Economic Hitman author, John Perkins), Martin Torrijos of Panama, and his American associate."

Whether Colonel Omar Torrijos was assassinated or not (certainly plausible), he was never a president and was not named martin.

There are literally a hundred things I can criticize about US policy in Panama in the 1980's, but that doesn't make it ok to post factually flawed stuff like this.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Here's a useful quote from John Perkins:

~snip~
John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man–a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, “Conscience of an Economic Hit Men.”

Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits–Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
(snip)

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/9/confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of looking up his name. Here's his Wiki:

Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – August 1, 1981) was the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard and the de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981. Torrijos never held elected office in Panama, and was never president. He did hold several other titles however, including "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution" and "Supreme Chief of Government."
(snip)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Torrijos

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chances are you're going to catch some people in far a larger hurry than allows for careful reflection and absolute accuracy in complete names and titles. I appreciate your thoughtful comments.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Adding an interesting article written during Bush #41's pathetic presidency:

50 U.S VIOLATIONS OF THE CARTER-TORRIJOS TREATIES
by Luis Restrepo
Panamanian journalist


INTRODUCTION

"The country is a dream of a shared future;
the country is, above all, hope of the future."
--Omar Torrijos
~snip~
According to General Wallace Nutting, former Commander in Chief of
the Southern Command, "to move the Southern Command to another place
of this continent will be highly expensive; furthermore, in no other
place can it work with the efficiency required to control Latin
American as it does in the Panamanian isthmus."

The United States never intended to hand over the Canal and that is
the reason why it has always kept a militarization policy in the
Panama Canal Administration. The key positions in the
administration are held by armed forces men who "were removed from
the army or the Navy" to accept those positions in the Canal
Commission. The United States is exerting pressure on the
Panamanian government so it will accept the renegotiation of the
permanence of the Southern Command in Panama beyond the year 2000.

Despite all its pressures the United States has not accomplished
that purpose. For that reason it has orchestrated a campaign of
offensive and virulent allegations against General Manuel Antonio
Noriega, Command in Chief of the Defense Forces of Panama, who has
taken on a nationalistic leadership which U.S. leaders find
intolerable.

The assassination of General Torrijos and the violent campaign of
defamation against General Noriega, the increasing violations of the
canal treaties; the political, economic and diplomatic terrorism
show that nothing will deter the United States in its determination
to impose the limitless presence of the Southern Command in Panama.

More:
http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/panama7.htm

[ArfDogMNO]

15. Whatever machinations about the treaty were behind the scenes,

anyone who takes this kind of stuff seriously needs to actually do some research on WHY the US ceased viewing Noriega as a useful agent and instead decided to remove him

Also, in the interests of showing what nonsense the postulated goals here are, the US left panama completely in 1999 aside from a non-publicized presence in Darien which has apparently been there for years now.

Please show me the limitless presence of Southcom in panama, and then consider what utter propaganda you have posted here. The first paragraph you posted is correct.

Also, please understand that turning over the canal was a done deal, politically impossible to undo, but extending the leases on key bases (Howard AFB and Fort Sherman) was directly in US interests and they negotiated for it. In the end Panama asked some absurd amount of money and that was that, deal off.

This reads like it was written during Noriega's rule by a pro-Noriega journalist writing for a local paper during the time period Noriega had imposed press censorship upon papers which criticized him.

If you are interested in learning more about this rather than posting the most pro-noriega propaganda that can be found, let me know. I live in Panama, was here during most of the Noriega problem times, and am not a US-policy shill.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Panama starts investigation of the USA invasion

Panama starts investigation of the USA invasion

December 21, 2007


~snip~
The National Assembly of Panama adopted a law in setting up of Comision de la Verdad (Commission of the Truth) that will have to investigate the circumstances of the USA troops invasion in Panama on December 20, 1989 and establish the exact figure of victims of military actions.

The purpose of the military operation was to capture the president of the country – general Manuel Antonio Noriega, who was accused by the US authorities in drug trafficking and other crimes.

Some districts of the Panamanian capital were severely shelled. Bombing and caused by it fire completely destroyed the district of El Chorrillo, where a faithful to the president military unit was situated. The US marines thought that Noriega should be right there. At that time about 20 thousand resident used to live in El Chorrillo. Till now nobody knows how many people were killed during the early hours bombing and fire. The official figure says 500 people, but human rights activists insist on the figure of 5000, the Panamanians themselves say that hardly anybody could survive at that horrible day.

Invasion of 1989, without a doubt, is the biggest tragedy of Panama in the XXth century.
(snip)

The mournful date of December 20 adds to another one – January 9 and 10, when in Panama they recollect the students who, in January days of 1964, tried to raise the national flag in the Panama Canal zone, where a USA military base used to be situated, and who were shot dead by the North Americans.
(snip)

http://www.tiwy.com/news.phtml?id=89

[ArfDogMNO]

16. How to rewrite history

"The mournful date of December 20 adds to another one – January 9 and 10, when in Panama they recollect the students who, in January days of 1964, tried to raise the national flag in the Panama Canal zone, where a USA military base used to be situated, and who were shot dead by the North Americans."

The 1964 deaths were of lower-class students from a school across from the canal zone which (the school, before and after this event, even today) have been used for decades to perform political demonstrations that the students couldn't even explain to you in more than 10 words, and mostly many went because they got to get out of class and throw rocks.

They have posthumously been converted into these semi-mythical patriotic demi-gods and exploited ruthlessly ever since. Panama's anti-american activists could not have asked for a better event. Who killed them? Shots were fired on both sides of 4 de Julio.

Also they tried to raise the flag at Balboa High School, not any of the military bases. The shooting took place later, initially there were only fights with students from both schools over what flag would be flown at the american territory's school. I actually corresponded with someone online who was at BHS when this took place, but I cannot recall where.

I do agree the 1989 invasion of Panama is a tragedy, mainly because it was avoidable. Noriega was briefly deposed in October 1989, and the coup leaders asked SOUTHCOM to come pick him up (SOUTHCOM is about 1-2 miles from Noriega's headquarters (before it was demolished)). SOUTHCOM iirc had a new commanding general who froze, and the coup failed.