Panama Catches Armed Rebel/Paramilitary on Colombian Border
(laht.com) He was wearing blue camouflage pants, a black T-shirt and rubber boots, and was carrying an M-16 rifle with eight cartridges of 30 rounds each, combat gear, two backpacks and inside of them two machetes and a shortwave radio.
PANAMA CITY -- Panama announced Friday the arrest of a well-armed irregular who was wounded during a shootout with police in the eastern province of Darien on the Colombian border.
The action on Thursday, according to Interior Minister Dilio Arcia, took place in the town of Manene, when a group of unidentified armed men disobeyed an order to halt from the Panamanian authorities and opened fire.
With regard to those involved in the incident, Arcia said at a press conference Friday that "we can't specifically say they belong to a subversive group, but we describe them as criminals because they were carrying arms and did not respond to the order to halt."
Nonetheless, the description of the wounded man indicates that he is affiliated with an organized group.
"He was wearing blue camouflage pants, a black T-shirt and rubber boots, and was carrying an M-16 rifle with eight cartridges of 30 rounds each, combat gear, two backpacks and inside of them two machetes and a shortwave radio," Arcia said of the captive.
The individual, a white male between the ages of 40 and 45, is being treated at the Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City, the minister said.
Panamanian police strengthened their presence throughout Darien province when a similar incident took place several weeks ago in the same town of Manene.
"We're providing security for the community and fulfilling the role of the National Border Service to protect above all the life, goods and rights of citizens," Arcia said.
Patrols of wooded areas along the Colombian border have also been stepped up.
Darien has some of the densest jungles in the Americas, and because of its difficulty of access and observation is known as a route for smugglers, drug traffickers, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries from neighboring Colombia.
