Letters

First hand, I want to congratulate you for your effort on keeping Panamanians and Zonians abroad, up to date on currents happenings in our beloved strip of land, Panama. I can see that, it is an effort of your part to give us all the actual information in different issues.

I would certainly like to get the issues from May 2002 on, to be delivered to my address below. I certainly will look for future investor(s) to help establish regular printing.

There are many positive things happening in Panama in the field of education. In March 2002, the Minister of Education, Dr. Doris de Mata signed a five year plan for the implementation and monitoring of a plan for inclusive education in Panamanian schools. This project is financially supported by the club 20/30, well known by their commitment to well being of children and youth with disabilities.

The five year plan is being designed and monitored by Richard M. Gargiulo, Ph. D. He will conduct an inservice for one hundred educators from July 15th thru the 19th at the Latin America University of Science and Technology. Multiple follow- up visits by Dr. Gargiulo will begin in 2003. He will work with teachers and school authorities throughout Panama in an effort to ensure the success of the Ministry's goal of bringing inclusive educational opportunities to children with disabbilities.

Professor Gargiulo is a national/internationally reknown special educator and author. He currently is a professor in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA). As a Fulbright Scholar Dr. Gargiulo has worked with teachers, professors and administrators in the People's Republic of China, South Africa, Australia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Egypt, Israel as well as Cuba.

Thanks to the visionary leadership of the Ministry of Education, and the financial support of the 20/30 Club, students with disabilities and their families will experience a way of educating children with special needs.

Two US citizens --- a Catholic priest and a former Green Beret who had served in Panama --- disappeared in Honduras in 1983. Their relatives, friends, and others investigating the case would be very grateful to hear from anyone in Panama who knew the former Green Beret and who might have received some information (even hearsay) about his disappearance.

Father James Carney had worked in Honduras for 18 years. His defense of human rights and his support of the farmers' organizing efforts resulted in his deportation in 1979. In 1983 he returned to Honduras as a chaplain to an armed revolutionary column; the group was defeated by the Honduran Army, and Father Carney disappeared. The Honduran military suggested that he had starved to death in the mountains.

Five years later, a former sergeant of the Honduran Army told The New York Times (June 5, 1988) that he personally had interrogated Carney and that the priest had been tortured and executed. In January 2002 a leader of the Christian Democrat Party stated publicly that he had seen Father Carney alive in a military jail in southern Honduras just after the priest had been captured.

David Arturo Baez Cruz, a Nicaraguan who had become a US citizen and then had served in the Green Berets (US Army Special Forces) before returning to his native Nicaragua, also entered Honduras as an advisor to the revolutionary group. Baez was named in a 1983 telegram from the US Southern Command and identified as a member of the group who was killed in action in Honduras. His remains, like those of Father Carney, have never been found.

The CIA Inspector General's Report on Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980s (approved for release in September 1998) cites an October 15, 1983 document from an office (name blacked out) stating "that it had received information indicating that PRTCH (Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers-Honduras) guerrillas who had been captured by the Honduran Armed Forces in Olancho department had been summarily executed by Honduran Army officers after being debriefed. Among those executed was Reyes Mata, his deputy commander `Comandante Zapata,' and a Nicaraguan advisor who had accompanied the guerrilla force" (pp. 46-47 of the report).

In various places in the CIA Inspector General's Report there are statements that Dr. Reyes Mata, the political leader of the group, was murdered by one or more Honduran military officers. The name or names are blacked out.

Relatives of David Arturo Baez Cruz (some of whom are American citizens living in the US) want to know whether he was "the Nicaraguan advisor who had accompanied the guerrilla force," cited above as one of those executed by Honduran officers.

Similarly, relatives of Father James Carney demand to know whether he was among those executed. Both the US and the Honduran governments should do everything possible to discover the true circumstances of his disappearance and the whereabouts of his remains.

On December 20, 2001 the UN Commission on Human Rights wrote to the US government, expressing its hope that the government will provide assistance to the family and relatives of Father Carney and others who disappeared with him with a view to clarifying their fate and the whereabouts of their remains. To date, the Commission has received no response.

A document concerning Baez Cruz was released in January 1998 from the Department of Defense: a secret telegram (November 15, 1983) from the Commander of the 470th Military Intelligence Group in Corozal, Panama. It names, among the participants in the armed column, "Father Guadalupe (James Francis Carney), a former US citizen and Jesuit priest and David Arturo Baez Cruz, a naturalized US citizen who was born in Nicaragua. Father Guadalupe is believed to have starved to death in the mountains of Olancho department. Baez (a/k/a Comandante Alfonso) reportedly was a member of the US Army's Special Forces Group stationed at Fort Gulick from 1970-72, and was killed in action during the Olancho operations. Baez, an expert in communications, served as the PRTC communications officer, while Father Guadalupe functioned as a political officer."

The former Green Beret´s relatives provide the following information, which places Baez Cruz at Ft. Gulick for a longer period of time. David Arturo Baez Cruz was born in Managua on 19 December 1950. From 1974 until 1981, Sergeant Baez Cruz (#552861357) served in A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Gulick, Panama. In 1981 he returned to Nicaragua and joined the Sandinista People's Army, serving in Military Intelligence, until joining the PRTC column in 1983.

He was last seen by his relatives in June of 1983 in Nicaragua before entering Honduras. There, as the US Southern Command telegram states, he "was killed in action during the Olancho operations" and disappeared.

People in Panama, whether US citizens or Panamanians, who knew Baez Cruz and who may have received some information about his disappearance are requested to contact the author of this letter.

Here are some of my thoughts and opinions, of some of the stories and subjects.

English bad as a second language --- I think that it's more important to have better schools, than to worry what would or could be a second language. Also what I found interesting was the picture of the Alto/Stop sign on the same page.

The Panama News not anti-American, anti-white: I believe that it's time for everyone to move forward. Then and only then can Panama move forward. What could be good is sometimes over looked for the here and now. Then what happens is the quick-fix cycle. (Which most if not all get stuck in.) Sure, English could be a good idea for a second language, and could be helpful in many ways. But if I remember correctly language wasn't the only subject. And for the anti-American, all the name calling, blaming, and resentment is just clouding what is really important and what really needs to happen. Everything and every place changes in time. If not we'd still be riding horses around in armor. I am not saying for anyone to forget about the past. But the past should be something that is improved on.

If you look through the past of Panama, you can see the different stages, and how things have been improved on as the years and Panama has moved ahead. Wouldn't it be more positive if one would say without the French efforts, the US might have not seen all the dangers of building the Canal? In a way, the French efforts was a help to the Americans completing the Canal. It wasn't just Americans that built the Canal, but many nations. Many different nations are represented in Panama today. If we look back and learn with the use of the past, logic would dictate that the US could be a help also to Panama. And in some ways they already have. I'd much rather be on the positive end than the negative.

I have visited Panama since I left. I was a little sad about what I saw. It wasn't the changes that made me sad. but how it could have changed. Just like in the past, there were some things that changed and some things that needed to change. That is true today in more than one subject.

For Panama to improve and move forward, many people will have to move forward. But like the saying goes, opinions are like a cup of coffee. If everyone had a cup, someone would be complaining. (Some would complain just to complain.)

If doing the "right thing" was always easy then we all be saints. Thanks for the work and effort that makes this paper possible. Your efforts are appreciated by many. During the years I lived in Panama, most wanted out, but no one wanted to leave. I have always been concerned with the good of all, and of Panama. Maybe one day I will return, but until then, health and happiness to you and yours.

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