Remembering December 20, 1989

I didn't know how much remembering this date would affect me, until I started to write this post. Tears have came to my eyes! It has been the most bloody days in my country's history. The military operation "Just Cause," well known as the U.S. invasion to Panama. This operation wasn't fair for Panamanian civilians, and not even for the American soldiers. Because they had the order to kill around Christmas. We celebrated Christmas in tears and with fear by thinking who of our family members had died, where the next attack would take place. We lost contact with my dad who used to work near Rio Hato, a town were a Panamanian military base was located. There were military confrontations in and around the military bases. So we knew my dad could be in trouble, but he could call us days later after the invasion. I remember hearing gun fires coming front the Pacific coast. Panamanian militaries escaped from Rio Hato thru the mountains around the Pacific coast. They got intersected by American soldiers who were strategically placed in the riffle bonkers built around those mountains during Wold War II. The whole country experienced the most horrible sense of insecurity and weaknessed the most horribles scenes of a war zone, especially, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Panama, known as "El Chorrillo."

The invasion could be avoided. But the American government chose not to, which it was understandable according to them. Panamanian civilians were confronting Noriega's dictatorship months previous to the invasion. The dictatorship was tumbling because of the pressure civilians were doing by confronting the Panamanian Army to defend their rights. Panamanian Militaries got tiered of seeing their people fighting against them —Panamanian against Panamanian. A group of Panamanian soldiers commanded by Moisés Giroldi conspired against Noriega. Moisés Giroldi contacted the US Southern Command, which operated in the Canal Zone. He told them about his plans to capture Noriega, so the US Army could extradite Noriega to the US. The US Southern Command agreed! The agreement was a US Army helicopter would arrive to the Panamanian military base located in "El Chorrillo" and take Noriega. On 3 October 1989,  Giroldi captured Noriega and persuaded other soldiers, working in that sift, to join him. But the US Army helicopter never arrived. This gave enough time to soldiers who supported Noriega to fight back against Giroldi. There were confrontations among the Panamanian Soldiers, so Giroldi got unarmed. Noriega took a gun, shooting right straight to Giroldi's head.


Why didn't the US Army helicopter arrive? The US Army claimed, at that time, it was missed communication. But the real reason was that Giroldi wasn't a trusting person, so they could not take that risk (Giroldi's intensions to get the county free of Noriega were true, but this is the price paid when you choose the wrong path). But there was one more powerful reason, that wasn't known by Panamanian civilians and the rest of the world. An American citizen got retained by Noriega for conspiracy against his dictatorship. This American civilian was living in Panama City because it seems he was married to a Panamanian woman. The American civilian began to intercept Noriega's conversations and shared them with the US Army. Noriega knew about it, so the American was captured, humiliated and tortured in the Panamanian military base located in El Chorrillo. The conspiracy agaisnt Noriega by Giroldi could put the American civilian's life in danger. The US Army was doing everything to get him back alive. So they had to strategically think on every move they would do. The "Just Cause" killed two (three) birds with one stone. They captured Noriega and released the American citizen alive. But they also sent a message to the world "how powerful they were" and the new weapons they had. Specially, for what was happening with, what was known as, Russia at that time.

Unfortunately, Panamanian civilians were the ones who truly paid the price for the errors and the horror of a dictatorship and the overpowering military operation from one of most powerful nations against a third wold country. The exact amount of Panamanian civilians lost  during the invasion will remind unknown. The estimates go from to 4,000 up to 8,000 Panamanian lost their lives in the invasion, including: babies, kids, women and seniors. A Panamanian Organization collected data and made surveys to know how many people were reported as missing and their bodies were never found. So the closer estimate according to this Panamanian organization is 5,000. More Panamanians died in the first 20 hour of the operation "Just Cause," than in 20 years of dictatorship. Things got out of control for the American Army. They probably not planned in this way, but this is the price Panamanians paid.  

The prognostic for Panamanian economy after the invasion were very discouraging. International economists predicted that it would take about 20 years for Panama recovered from the invasion. But regardless how much pain, human lost and destruction the invasion cost to my county, Panamanians took the lead back and our economy got recovered in 5 years after the invasion, instead 20 years –even when the US government didn't gave all the monetary support they promised to rebuild the distroided zones in Panama during the invasion. 23 years have passed after the invasion, I proudly say that Panama has the second place for having one of the the best and fastest growing economies in Latin America. When the presence of the American troops was removed from Panamanain soil in December 31, 1999; Many Panamanians celebrated, including me. We could have our land back, the Canal Zone.  But there were also many Panamanians who were sad because the US Army presence won't be in our country any more. Because they thought there were many benefits to keep the troops in Panama, especially for the economy. There were fears we won't be able to survive without the Americans. But once again, We did!

Currently,  the Panamanian Government and the American Government keep good international realtions and work together in the war against illigal drugs. 

I am very proud of being a Panamanian because we forgive, we accept and we celebrate. We don't keep bad feelings against Americans because of the invasion, in fact, there are a lot Americans immigrating to Panama and they are always "Welcome." We accepted the struggles the invasion brought because when the invasion happened, some countries offered to bring their troops and contra-attack the US Army. Panamanians stood up and said: NO! No in Panamanian soil. We suffered enough, we wanted to concentrate in moving on and rebuilding our country. Regardless, this sad part of my country's history, we celebrate life as much as we can because the Panamanian culture has always an excuse to make a party to celebrate everything; so the invasion didn't took away the way Panamanians are, joking around all the time. 

A Panamanian Message to the World:

FORGIVE, ACCEPT and CELEBRATE

I am married to an American citizen.

I have two kids who were born in American soil. 

One day, I will adopt the American citizenship.