PANAMA CITY (Dispatches) -- Panama’s National Assembly has renewed efforts to pass a bill to officially recognize December 20 as the “day of national mourning”, marking the deadly U.S. military invasion of the country in 1989.
Local activists, who have been pushing for the enactment of such legislation for years, have decried successive U.S.-backed administrations for politicizing and hindering the cause, accusing them of escaping from “this historical responsibility,” HispanTV reported.
The brutal U.S. invasion of the Central American nation – which killed hundreds and overthrew then president Manuel Noriega – remains a festering wound in the country’s recent turbulent history.
Panamanians, who come together every year to commemorate the occasion, have for years called for its recognition as the national day of mourning.
Human rights organizations estimate that the actual number of Panamanians killed in the military assault was more than 1,000, rejecting the official death toll of only 300, and prompting former president Juan Carlos Varela to establish a commission to investigate the actual toll.
According to the HispanTV report, independent lawmakers in the country’s nation assembly strongly denounced the political manipulation of the legislative process to hinder the passage of two separate bills seeking to designate the bloody military invasion as a mourning day.
The report notes that only one of the bills has so far been approved for debate in Panama’s top legislative body.
It also points out that the parliamentary effort is backed by Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which confirmed violations of life and property as a result of the U.S. invasion in its October 2018 report.
However, despite the findings of the IACHR report, the Panamanian government has failed to extend effective cooperation to demand comprehensive reparation for the victim’s families from the aggressor country, which yields considerable influence on top Panamanian officials.
Political activists in the country are also blaming North American and local economic monopolies for exerting influence to block the passage of the bills.
The development comes just over three months after several bags with human remains were exhumed from a mass grave in Panama amid searches for the victims of the brutal US invasion.
For years, families have called for searching the remains of those who died, many of whom were buried in mass graves.