Eyewitness report of U.S. atrocities in Panama

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Here is the story of one Panamanian woman during the U.S. invasion of her country on Dec. 20, 1989.

She is the mother of 16 children and several grandchildren who lived in her home at that time. I met her in Havana, Cuba, during the conference of the Federation of Cuban Women which began on Oct.16 of this year. For six days, we were roommates in the same dorm.

They had heard rumors for days that the United States would invade their country. But she really didn't believe it. They had been friends with many North Americans and just did not believe that they would make war on the people of Panama.

She was awakened out of a sound sleep on Dec. 20 by the sound of helicopters over her home. Her 10year-old grandson ran into her room crying. They looked out the window and could see lights and fires all around them. Then bullets began By force was used to move them away from their homes and into the camps.

She moved into the camp with her daughter and two-week-old grandaughter. There was no water, food, or beds-just some tents where they slept on the ground. Meanwhile, the army put up barbed-wire fences all around the camp. About 5000 people were behind barbed wiremen, women, and children.

The "toilets" were out in the open-they had nothing, not even a curtain. She pleaded with the soldiers to at least put curtains around the open areas they called "toilets." They laughed at her. She was so embarrassed she could not move her bowels for four days. She got a hernia from holding herself in.

Poor Pentagon! It still seems to be haunted by what military planners label "The Vietnam Syndrome." In plain terms, they are referring to the antiwar sentiment of the American people that was forged during our experience with Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s.

And so, on television and radio, The showers where they were supposed to bathe were also wide open. She pleaded, once again, to have some privacy when she took a shower. She explained that strange men and army troops were walking around the showers all of the time and that she had never even let her own husband see her that way. They thought this was very funny.

I should note here that she believed that some of the "American" GIs were Nicaraguan contras. Not only were their accents Nicaraguan, but they "spoke contra language, that is, they used terminology she and other Panamanians identified as such.

She was given a plastic identification card (she showed it to us) so she could leave and re-enter the encampment. She left to go out and try to locate relatives who were missing and to try to find some food and clothes for her family. The camp still had very little food.

While she was out, she ran into her 10-year-old grandchild, who had been lost during the air raid. He was so happy to see his grandmother that he cried. At 10 at night, she arrived back at the camp with her grandson and was told by the guard that she could come in but not her grandson—he didn't have a card! Despite her pleas to allow her grandson into the camp the soldier was unmoved.

She pleaded that her grandson had been sleeping on the street and had only her to care for him-the child was hysterical at the thought of being separated from his grandmother again-but the soldier stood firm. She finally went outside the camp and slept on the ground with her grandchild. The next day, he was given a card and allowed to enter the concentration camp.

Missing relatives

For weeks, people would try to search the ruins to find members of their families-even their bodies. When they went to the American authorities to ask about missing relatives, they were laughed at and told that "they had probably run away." But the people knew they were more likely killed in the bombings.

Finally huge earthmovers came and bull-dozed all of the burnt and destroyed housing without making an attempt to find and remove the dead. They got rid of the rubble, bodies and all. Now, all over Panama, families are still searching for missing children and other loved ones, who they believe were among those killed but unaccounted for in the invasion on Dec. 20, 1989.

When atrocities like this occur, the criminals responsible can sometimes hide it for a while. But history shows that the truth cannot be hidden forever. | about politics, debating topics that seemed tremendously complicated to me. Perhaps I expressed some of my frustrations with the narrowminded policies I had encountered in the SPU. Thus, a young guy (who seemed to be only a couple of years older than me) took me aside and gave me the lowdown on what was