The President of the Republic has designated a group of persons
to constitute a so-called Truth Commission, which will allegedly
undertake to investigate the circumstances in which some Panamanians
disappeared two or three decades ago. This designation was given
according to the personal criteria of those who she chose.
We Torrijistas categorically state that the presence of certain
persons on the commission morally invalidates it, as their permanent
anti-Torrijista militance makes it impossible for their conclusions
to be admissible as the results of and objective and balanced
judgment. Neither Velásquez, nor Koster nor Berguido are impartial,
nor can they set aside the vindictiveness that has always characterized
their political actions, although other members of the commission
merit our respect.
With regard to the serious matter that they must take up, we have
said that we Torrijistas are the first to demand to know the truth
about the violence and disappearances that our compatriots suffered
before and after 1968.
On the other hand, the situation is made worse by an act which,
contrary to constitution and laws, gives the commission functions
like taking testimony and receiving public documents, which directly
conflict with the powers of the judiciary and of the Public Ministry.
This suggests possible crimes of abuse of authority, as well as
the usurpation of functions, within the meaning of article 217,
section 4 of our Constitution, especially when in the decree that
created the commission the executive assumed functions that are
exclusively those of the legislature.
Similar moral, political and legal deficiencies leave this commission
too far from satisfying the national expectation that this subject
will be investigated in an ethical, objective and prudent manner,
without slanting the results for ostensible political purposes.
In the face of the pettiness of this governmental initiative,
we insist that it's not valid for either history or justice to
be selectively segmented in order to examine only a certain part
of the facts of which our people want to know the truth. Hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of Panamanians were brutally killed and made
to disappear during the December 1989 invasion, but are now capriciously
excluded from the scope of the investigation, because that's politically
convenient for the one who chose the commissioners. However, for
the Torrijistas the debts and spiritual legacies of both sides
are equally valuable.
As we have warned, with all this she tries to distract public
opinion from the grave problems that beset the country, instead
of resolving them as it's the government's responsibility to do.
For our part, we will go on demanding that the truth about all
the facts be objectively known, without this partial commission
keeping us from getting at it.
