Truth commission on US invasion of Panama

[Judi Lynn]

Truth commission on US invasion of Panama

Source: AAP

A truth commission will examine the 1989 US invasion of Panama, the country's foreign minister says.

4 Jul 2015 - 10:54 AM UPDATED 4 Jul 2015 - 3:07 PM

A truth commission will examine the US invasion of Panama, which took place more than 25 years ago and toppled military dictator General Manuel Noriega.

The commission will look at victims of the military operation launched by the United States at the end of 1989, Panama Foreign Minister Isabel Saint Malo said.

The number of people estimated killed in operation Just Cause is more than 3000, including numerous civilians.

But the exact number of victims and their identities isn't known because many bodies were buried in mass graves.

More:
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/07/04/truth-commission-us-invasion-panama

Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016126690

[Turbineguy]

1. The Bush family

is a naturally invasive species.

[bananas]

2. The Panama Deception

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Panama_Deception

The Panama Deception

The Panama Deception is a 1992 American documentary film that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[1] The film is critical of the actions of the US military during the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States, covering the conflicting reasons for the invasion and depicting the US media as biased. It also highlighted media bias, showing events that were unreported or misreported in the news. It was directed by Barbara Trent of the Empowerment Project and was narrated by actress Elizabeth Montgomery.

The film asserts that the U.S. government invaded Panama primarily to renegotiate the terms of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties. Another allegation made by the film is that the United States tested some form of laser or energy weapon during the invasion. The film also includes footage of mass graves uncovered after the US troops had withdrawn, burned down neighborhoods, as well as depictions of some of the 20,000 refugees who fled the fighting.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Anyone who hasn't seen this documentary already will appreciate this change to see it now.

We were all completely kept clueless about it, with the assistance of our corporate "news" media.

This is a chance to learn what they really didn't want us to know, even though all of Latin America surely as hell knew.

[Judi Lynn]

4. FYI, facts on the DR fascist dictator, Rafael Trujillo:

From a post at DU years ago:

dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-31-11 04:05 AM
Original message

'I shot the cruellest dictator in the Americas'


Before his assassination on a dark highway on 30 May 1961, the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ruled with an iron fist for almost 30 years. Tim Mansel meets one of the men who shot him.

Rafael Trujillo's rule is considered one of the most brutal periods in the history of the Dominican Republic. Taking power in 1930, his hold over the country was absolute. He brooked no opposition.

Those who dared to oppose him were imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Their bodies often disappeared, rumoured to have been fed to the sharks.

In 1937, Trujillo ordered the racially motivated massacre of several thousand Haitians living in the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13560512

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-01-11 12:28 PM
Response to Original message

1. Thanks for posting the Trujillo assassination article, dipsydoodle. Didn't see it 'til today.

Here's a short summary of his stinking career:

Rafael Trujillo was born in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, in 1891. After leaving school he worked as a telegraph operator. At the time Dominican Republic was occupied by the United States. In 1918 Trujillo joined the Dominican National Guard that had been created by the Americans. He made rapid progress in his new career and by the time the US Marines left in 1924 he was the head of the Dominican National Guard.

In 1930 Trujillo ran against incumbent Horacio Vasquez for president. Trujillo was able to use his power to win the election. He afterwards claimed he had won ninety five percent of the vote. After he gained power Trujillo established a secret police force that tortured and murdered the opposition to his rule.

Trujillo used his political control to obtain great personal wealth. He achieved support from the United States by becoming Latin America's leading anti-communists. Cordell Hull, US Secretary of State (1933-1944), defended Trujillo by saying: " He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our son-of-a-bitch."

More:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKtrujillo.htm

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One of Trujillo's crowning achievements, "The Parsley Massacre:"

The massacre that marked Haiti-Dominican Republic ties

By Nick Davis
BBC News, Caribbean correspondent

13 October 2012

Seventy-five years ago, the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic was the scene of a mass slaughter that has long burned in Haitians' collective memory but was either unknown or forgotten in the wider world.

It earned the name the Parsley Massacre because Dominican soldiers carried a sprig of parsley and would ask people suspected of being Haitian to pronounce the Spanish word for it: "perejil".

Those whose first language was Haitian Creole found it difficult to say it correctly, a mistake that could cost them their lives.

Historians estimate that anywhere between 9,000 and 20,000 Haitians were killed in the Dominican Republic on the orders of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Bodies were dumped in the Massacre River, ominously named after an earlier colonial struggle between the Spanish and French.

The killings of 1937 changed the relationship between the two countries on the island of Hispaniola and its effects can still be felt today.

Rafael Trujillo was in power from 1930 until his assassination in 1961

From late September to mid-October that year, men, women and children were rounded up, then beaten or hacked to death for just being Haitian.

Even dark-skinned Dominicans were caught up in the purge that became known as "el corte", the cutting.

More:
https://genocidememorialproject.wordpress.com/student-memorial-pages/trujillos-dominican-republic/

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RAFAEL LEONIDAS TRUJILLO

President of the Dominican Republic

The US occupied the Dominican Republic in 1916 and created the National Guard to put Rafael Leonidas Trujillo into power. The fact that Trujillo was court-martialed for kidnapping and rape in 1920 did not impede his rise to power or taint his relationship with the US. As dictator of the Dominican Republic for 30 years, Trujillo had a penchant for self-adulation, and put his personal stamp on everything, including the capital, village water pumps, and homes for the aged. Trujillo won the 1930 presidential election with more votes than there were registered voters, but because he was anti-communist, Washington was happy. He invoked anti-communism to justify mass deportations, torture and summary executions. Workers who asked for wage increases were labeled communists, and shot on the spot, as were farmers who tried to stop Trujillo from confiscating their land. He eventually controlled over 80% of the country's sugar plantations, using slave labor provided by neighboring Haiti to keep profits high. In 1937, he decided to blame depressed sugar prices on the Haitian workers, and massacred 20,000 them. Trujillo was finally assassinated by the CIA in 1961 after he attempted to have President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela murdered because of his criticism of Trujillo's brutal regime. It was only then that the Marine Corps made public the fact that our ally Trujillo was a convicted rapist.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html