More bodies found in renewed mass grave excavations

by Willy Carrera Loza and Eric Jackson

A search for human remains that began soon after Mireya Moscoso took office, then paused for many months, has resumed with gruesome new discoveries.

Forensic specialists from the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), representatives of the Catholic Church and two unidentifed witnesses made visual inspection of the former Puma infantry company barracks in Tocumen as the first step in the renewed search for the bodies of people who disappeared during the military dictatorship. Then, relying on the witnesses' memories, excavation began under the supervision of assistant prosecutor Carlos Agusto Herrera and PTJ sub-director Javier Chérigo. A little more than a week later, a few meters from where the remains of activist Heliodoro Portugal and a still-unidentified person were unearthed in late 1999, more skeletons were found.

The first new find was about 60 percent of an adult skeleton, whose gender was not immediately determined. Some of the clothing was still intact, but the garments bore scorch burn marks and the body had apparenty been covered with lime before it was buried to speed its decomposition. Herrera, who referred us to Attorney General José Antonio Sossa for futher questions, told The Panama News slow and painstaking methods were being used to preserve evidence.

The bones were sent to the morgue at Santo Tomas Hospital, where forensic pathologist Dr. Vicente Parchad began tests to determine the person's identity. Parchad's initial findings were that the remains bore the marks of torture and a violent death.

Two important bits of physical evidence were found near the body: a little black address book with five-digit telephone numbers in use back in 1972, and dogtag belonging to a Lieutenant Heliodoro Villamil, the head of General Omar Torrijos's bodyguard in the early 70s who later retired as a major. Villamil is still alive, and though Panama's 20-year statute of limitations probably immunizes him from prosecution, police were seeking to talk with him as this issue of The Panama News went to the printer.

One of the witnesses has assured authorities that Father Héctor Gallego is buried at the site, and, as investigators already have DNA samples from the disappeared priest's immediate family, Attorney General Sossa ordered immediate tests to determine if the bones were Gallego's.

As the excavations slowly progressed, bones belonging to fourth and a fifth victim emerged. When the sixth set of remains were found, with the hands still bound behind the back and the head still covered in a cloth hood, photojournalists were allowed onto the crime scene and there was much public indignation.

Sossa pleaded for patience on the part of both the press and the public, promising to reveal information as it became definitely known. According to church sources and members of the Gallego family, it is expected that at least 10 and possibly up to 20 people will be found at the Puma barracks. These sources say that the defunct Panamanian military had a "tunnel of death" in which the bodies of murdered activists were concealed. The excavations have borne this out, uncovering a passageway with several staircases, some four meters deep, which was later filled in.

As the excavations have continued there has been a growing cry for President Moscoso to create a Truth Commission. Though former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares dismissed the investigation as witch hunt designed to sully the name of Omar Torrijos, a number of PRD members, including Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, expressed their support for a thorough search for the truth.

The call for a Truth Commission antedates the latest finds. Back in September the Center for Human Rights Research and Judicial Assistance sent a long missive to the president, urging her to create an independent commission. The petition quoted Bishop Juan Gerardi, who headed Guatemala's Truth Commission and was assassinated shortly after it released its report: "We want to contribute to the building of a different country. For this we are recovering the people's memory."

Also taking a higher profile is the Committee of the Families of Panama's Disappeared. The group says that about 120 people, most of them leftist activists, were taken away and killed during the 22-year dictatorship. The group called for a Truth Commission this past October.

Human rights activist Manuel Cupas said that the creation of a Truth Commission would be a positive step. He warned, however, against the politicization of such a panel and said that any commission would have to jealously guard its independence.