IACHR asks US for compensation

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) asked the United States to compensate the victims of the invasion of Panama in 1989.

The request is to compensate the victims for multiple human rights violations, according to a document released on Friday.

The IACHR considers that the United States "is responsible" for the violation of the right "to life, liberty, security and integrity of the person."

It also accuses Washington of violating the rights to the protection of children, property and justice, says the 91-page document.

For this reason, the IACHR asked the United States to "fully repair the human rights violations established in this report, both materially and immaterially."

In addition, it  "must adopt measures of economic compensation and satisfaction," he adds.

More than 27,000 US soldiers invaded Panama in 1989 to overthrow the then dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, who was wanted by a Miami court on drug charges.

Officially, the number of deaths during the invasion has been reported as 500, but human rights organizations raise the number to several thousand.

In the IACHR report, reference is made to 315 victims, who would have to be compensated by  the US.

The current Panamanian government created the Commission on December 20, 1989 to count and identify the victims, in addition to seeking national reconciliation.

The Commission is currently investigating 250 possible death cases.

10,000 files are being analyzed by the Supreme Court of Justice.  One report is about 124 bodies in a cemetery where they have begun collecting DNA tests.

The families of the victims demand that the United States compensate the country for the invasion and tell them where the mass graves are.

The commission plans to submit its final report in May 2019.

The first lawsuits against the United States for the invasion before the IACHR are from 1990.