Panama: Circumstances of Omar Torrijos death remain a mystery
September 4, 2006
Torrijos died 25 years ago on July 31, 1981, when the national Air Force aircraft, at which the general was heading to the area of Coclesito, crashed into the mountain Cerro Marta flank under strange circumstances.
The majority of the Panama's population still think that the investigation, which was carried out «without delay» immediately after the crash, was not completed, leaving a lot of «blank spots» and doubts.
Attention was also paid to the fact that under the same circumstances just two months prior to the Panama tragedy, the President of Ecuador Jaime Roldos died, who in the same way as Omar Torrijos, was under constant fire of criticism from the United States.
Elias Castillo, President of the National Assembly, said about the need to find out the truth about the death of O. Torrijos. He recalled the statement of a prominent American economist John Perkins that Omar Torrijos was a «serious obstacle» for the CIA plans in Latin America and use of Washington the methods of «cold war» in the region of Central America and the Caribbean.
We cannot help mentioning that today's President Martin Torrijos, son of the late Panama leader, who managed to return the usurped by the United States the Panama Canal to the country, in his public speeches and private discussions very rarely touches upon the painful for him topic of his father's death. Nobody can be completely confident, what the new investigation can lead to, what facts that prove the theory of conspiracy against the general can come out of nonexistence.
It might be the reason for long silence of the Prosecutor General A.M. Gomez.