The Lost Paradise of Panamá

In my previous post from a few days ago, there’s a picture of friends and family. Sitting front and center and holding one of his great-grandchildren is my wife’s uncle Tomasito. We recently learned that he passed away yesterday, July 15, of an apparent stroke. Tomasito was a really, really great guy, and he had such a gentle spirit. I always enjoyed visiting him at his home in the suburbs of Panama City. When my wife first moved from the interior to the city many years ago, it was Tomasito who looked after her. He will be greatly missed.

Here is a picture of friends and family during a recent gathering near Panama City

There had been demonstrations before, but this was the day Panama exploded. Colonel Diaz-Herrera had been making accusations against the Noriega regime for weeks. Father McGrath was trying to keep things calm. It all came to a head on this day. I don’t know how many I saw get shot, but there were many. I was literally running down the street being chased by the la guardia, and took refuge in a laundry mat, pulling down the garage-type door behind me, and helping to protect the occupants inside. It was definitely an ugly piece of history I would like to forget and never see again. But then, go up the coast to Honduras, and we see some of the same unrest. At some point people get ticked off enough and stand up for freedom.

Here are a couple of old links I found that pertain to the events on 10 July 87 in Panama City, R.P.:

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/29/opinion/in-panama-we-re-rebuilding-frankenstein.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=c9SbTJHy5TsC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=july+10+1987+panama&source=bl&ots=EZP114xARi&sig=ymiw-r9tUF3ARzyCPBsXJUpXh2M&hl=en&ei=b4FWSsKjJtH6tgfOgK3BAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

Several years ago when I was living in Panama as a soldier, a group I was with crossed the Isthmus through the jungle. A Desk Man (in the Army this would be an officer without a command who comes up with great ideas for others to try) had been reading up on Panamanian history. He learned how the early Conquistadors had crossed the Isthmus on foot. Later, the King’s Road was built. This was followed by trails forged by gold seekers headed to California via Panama. These trails became the foundation for a railroad, and finally, the Panama Canal. The Desk Man thought it would be a great training exercise to recreate what the Conquistadors had done, and to truly test our jungle survival skills. The rules were simple. We would parachute onto Venado Drop Zone (DZ) south of Howard AFB on the Pacific side. We would assemble into our assigned teams and head toward the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side. We had to stay within the Canal Zone, which covered a swath of land that was five miles wide on either side of the canal. And, most importantly, we could not use roads or receive any indigenous help. As a safety precaution, instead of carrying one radio, we would carry two.

Map of central Panama

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