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On this day in 1989, George H.W. Bush ordered 27,000 troops to invade Panama to overthrow former CIA asset Manuel Noriega, killing 5,000 people, dumping bodies in mass graves and destroying thousands of homes.
During the invasion, US troops systematically torched homes, ran over civilians, conducted systematic executions of both civilians and soldiers in the street and paid people to dump the bodies in mass graves. Other unidentified bodies were piled up in the streets and burned.
Spanish photographer Juantxu Rodríguez of El País was shot and killed by an American soldier after he captured photographs of systematic killings.
US forces indiscriminately bombed the poor neighborhood of El Chorillo, home to housing projects and the headquarters of the country’s military. 400 bombs were dropped in first hour of the war, concentrated in poor urban neighborhoods like El Chorillo.
Fires engulfed the wooden homes, destroying about 4,000. Some residents called El Chorrillo “Guernica” or “little Hiroshima.” When the bombing ended, bulldozers excavated mass graves and shoveled in the bodies. “Buried like dogs,” said the mother of one of the civilian dead.
The El Chorrillo neighborhood, destroyed by the US, was originally created in 1915, for workers building the Panama canal, many immigrants from the Caribbean. Following the bombing it transformed into an impoverished and dangerous, gang-ridden area.
The formation of gangs also escalated when American weapons were left behind in the streets after the invasion.
Many families are still looking for answers about what happened to family members who went missing during the invasion. https://www.businessinsider.com/30-years-after-us-invasion-panamanian-families-seek-answers-2019-12
In May 2020, Professor Jose Castillo said, they are still counting bodies and searching for the missing from the US invasion 30 years ago.
On Dec. 20, 2019, for the first time since the invasion, Panama’s government declared a national day of mourning.
Families gathered at cemeteries to remember their family members killed in the invasion.
Families gathered at cemeteries to remember their family members killed in the invasion.
Mural in Panama City reading:
“The 20th of December 1989 Day of Mourning
The Yankee Army invaded this country and killed innocent people.
To this day, it’s not known how many were killed and the wound is still open”
“The 20th of December 1989 Day of Mourning
The Yankee Army invaded this country and killed innocent people.
To this day, it’s not known how many were killed and the wound is still open”
