Panamanians Mourn US Invasion Victims

Weekly News Update on the Americas, issue #412, 21 December 1997

Relatives of the victims of the Dec. 20, 1989 US invasion of Panama marked the anniversary this year with a religious ceremony honoring the victims, held at the Jardin de Paz cemetery in eastern Panama City. Participants laid flowers on the gravestones of their relatives and on a monument to the unidentified victims. This year the Panamanian government gave posthumous promotions to the members of the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) killed in the invasion. Spokespeople of a victims' relatives association reiterated their demand that Dec. 20 be declared a day of national mourning; that the Panamanian government demand compensation from the US for the victims; and that the sites of clandestine common graves be revealed. Later in the day grassroots and human rights groups were to join the victims relatives in a "black march" through Panama City to commemorate the invasion, in what has become an annual tradition. On Dec. 19, university students and members of the Organizations Against [US] Military Bases held a vigil in front of the US embassy and burned an effigy dressed in a US flag. [Notimex 12/20/97]