"The Panama Deception" An exposé of the U.S. invasion

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Film director Barbara Trent is confronted by MP as she attempts to "The Panama Deception," a documentary film directed by Barbara Trent. Written and edited by David Caspar. Produced by the Empowerment Project. One hr., 34 min.

In December 1990, the United States waged war on Panama. It was the largest and bloodiest war since Vietnam-and a warm up for the Persian Gulf. Thousands died. Thousands were taken prisoner. Communities were laid waste. The entire country was occupied by 24,000 U.S. soldiers.

The people of Panama still remember the war. Many had relatives who disappeared that Christmas season. A few found their relatives in the rubble of destroyed buildings. Others found them in one of the mass graves that the authorities have allowed to be opened.

But people in the United States know very little about the war. How could we? Our sources of information-television, the daily papers, the government itself— hid the truth from us. They said, for example, that few civilians died. No civilian targets were hit. And there was no invasion. No war. Just a search for the "drug dealer" Noriega.

Now, in "The Panama Deception," people in this country have an alternative source of information. This low-budget film, directed by Barbara Trent, provides interviews and on-the-spot footage to help us make up our own minds.

We are shown scenes from El Chorrillo, a poor neighborhood of Panama City where whole blocks of houses and apartments were bombarded, machine-gunned, and demolished by U.S. troops. Mortar shells light up the sky as they explode. Against a sheet of flame, people run wildly in the streets.

Witnesses say that in the days after the invasion, U.S. soldiers entered El Chorrillo and torched those houses that were still standing. Throughout the country, well over 20,000 were made homeless.

We see cars with people still inside that were flattened by U.S. tanks. We see the bodies pulled out from a mass grave where the U.S. troops hurriedly deposited their victims one of 15 mass graves identified in the country.

Recently, a House of Representatives sub-committee concluded that only "300interview homeless Panamanians.

odd" Panamanians were killed during the invasion. But the film-citing several Panamanian human rights organizations— puts the number of deaths closer to 4000. The International Red Cross has collected over 1500 reports of people who had "disappeared."

Getting an accurate count of the the casualties was made difficult because the hospitals were surrounded by U.S. troops, and reporters were denied access. The U.S. Southern command even removed the registries from the hospitals and morgues.

The Defense Department reportedly made an extensive film record of the invasion-but most of it has been destroyed. However, some of the government's footage appears in 'The Panama Deception." It was obtained by the filmmakers by means of the Freedom of Information Act (after a legal struggle).

Some scenes in the film were supplied by Panamanian cameraman Manuel Becker and other local news reporters, who filmed at great risk to themselves. One photographer was shot and killed by the troops. Others were arrested or had their film destroyed.

Six months after the invasion, Barbara Trent and her film crew did their own onlocation filming in Panama. Even then, the U.S. military dogged their steps. In one scene in the film, military authorities attempt to stop the crew from interviewing homeless people who had been given "shelter" inside an airplane hangar.

Eventually, the officials are forced to back off by the homeless people themselves. One man tells the filmmakers that the U.S. occupation forces "are worse than Noriega. Under Noriega we used to eat three meals a day. Now we don't get even one!"

Is it true that the U.S. government was forced to act in Panama in order to extradite Gen. Noriega? To answer the question, "The Panama Deception" makes use of archival material going back to early in the century, when Washington split off Panama from the country of Colombia in order to build and maintain control over the canal.

Subsequently, Panama became a virtual U.S. colony, where Southern-style Jim Crow laws applied. It provided an important naval and air base, a stepping stone for the United States to dominate the Andean region of South America.

In 1977, President Carter negotiated a new treaty with Panama's head of state, Omar Torrijos. The treaty would have shut down all 14 bases of the U.S. Southern Command in 1999, and would have returned the canal zone to Panamanian sovereignty.

The film describes, however, how the Reagan administration sought to overturn the treaty and disrupt the Panamanian government and economy. The CIA poured over $10 million into the 1990 elections in order to defeat the Noriega slate.

After the invasion, the U.S.-backed candidate, Guillermo Endara, was summarily placed in office by the occupying forces. Meanwhile, potential political dissidents, journalists, and—most significantly— trade-union leaders and activists were rounded up and thrown into jail.

"The Panama Deception" shows that Endara and his cronies are linked to the drug trade at least as much as Noriega was. Nearly every senior member of the new regime, including Endara himself, were directors of banks that laundered money for the drug runners.

No matter how much you may agree or disagree with the point of view..of the filmmakers, one thing can't be denied. There is a great deal more to be learned about this war than was included in the nightly television "news."

"The Panama Deception," in film or video versions, may be ordered from the Empowerment Project, 1653 18th St., Suite #3, Santa Monica, CA. 90404. For further reading, see "The U.S. Invasion of Panama" by the Independent Commission of Inquiry, published by South End Press.