Government Admits Guilt in Changuinola Clashes

(Panama-Guide) - La Prensa - The Government has assumed its guilt. Last night, the Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy Papadimitriu admitted there were flaws in the handling of the crisis in Bocas del Toro which left two dead and more than 200 wounded last week. "We regret what happened in the province of Bocas del Toro. This never should have happened. For the government this was a lesson learned, but we had to restore peace and order to Changuinola," he said. The clashes between members of the security forces and striking banana workers left 52 people wounded by bird shot to the eyes. The clash also left 33 police injured, and four who were kidnapped and held for a few days by the protesters. The majority of the injuries occurred on the third day of clashes, Saturday, 10 July 2010, the day commemorating the 24th anniversary of "Black Friday" - when the military regime of Manuel Antonio Noriega harshly repressed a demonstration by the Civil Crusade. According to the records of La Prensa, on that day, 10 July 1987, there was a total of about 600 people injured. Of those about 150 were shot with bird shot, and of that total only three suffered pellet wounds in their eyes.
 
Former officials of the security sectors in the last four governments claimed that during their respective administrations they never used bird shot to disperse demonstrations. The Chief of the police station in Bocas del Toro, Sub Commissioner Didier de Gracia, said many of the protesters were shot in the face when they reached down to pick up stones to throw at the police, or to grab tear gas canisters that had been fired to extinguish them in buckets of water, or if they crouched down for cover, that put them at the level of the shots fired by the police. He added that the first measure of force used was tear gas, and then rubber bullets, and that initially there were more than 4,000 protesting banana workers against only 150 police officers.