Explosive Wounds Worker in Rio Hato, July 1999
Number 27, July 1999
Explosive Wounds Worker in Rio Hato, Panama
José Quintero De León
La Prensa, Tuesday, July 6, 1999
The current controversy between Panama and the United States for an efficient and secure cleanup of the bases and training sites used by the U.S. Army was reinflamed yesterday, after an explosive object blew up in the face of a worker who was re-foresting the old Rio Hato base, causing him serious injuries.
Elizabeth Samaniego, director of Reforestadora Rio Hato, a company that is re-foresting a parcel on the old military base, explained that early yesterday, foreman Pablo Atencio went out into the field with his six helpers to do staking (the placing of stakes in a row in preparation for planting seedlings).
Right away, young Kelvin Perez Sanchez, 18, hammered a stake and his friends felt an explosion that threw them several yards. After recovering, they found Perez bloody and with his face so damaged they had to take him rapidly to Rio Hato for medical attention.
Because his injuries were so serious, the company ordered him taken quickly to Aquilino Tejeira Hospital, in Penonome, where Dr. Ricardo Jaen treated him in the emergency room, then referred him to an opthamologist, since his right eye was badly affected.
Perez, a native of the community of El Retiro, Anton, also received shrapnel in the right side of his neck, as well as wounds on his right abdomen. His right hand got the impact of the bomb's explosion, losing part of his thumb.
Samaniego said that although the wounded youth is conscious and calm, he complains of terrible pain on his face and body. The company, she said, informed his family members and brought them to the hospital to see him.
Yesterday's incident surprised the reforestation company's managers, since Rio Hato military base transferred to Panama in the 1970s, long before the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, while General Omar Torrijos was still alive.
The director said that upon telling the National Police of the incident, DIIP officials took notes on what happened and went over the area. Assistance was requested from the Anti-explosives Unit to repeat the detailed survey of the land. Ten months ago, Samaniego said, the specialists combed for two weeks the area which the Natural Resources Institute [the national environmental agency] rented to them for re-foresting. At that time, they found 32 unexploded munitions, which reassured the planters who began their reforestation work with confidence.
The director said that the police did a great job with the resources that they have at hand, but feels they cannot do more if the bombs are buried and can't be seen at that depth.
For the farm's administators, the indemnification Panama is expected to demand of the United States, some $580 million to clean up the bases and training sites of many unexploded munitions, is not practical in the face of tragedies that will keep occurring, like that of Kelvin Perez Sanchez.
The best and right thing, she believes, is that the United States proceed to clean up the lands that Panama wants to use, since the money would be spent on other needs and the explosive waste will stay there buried, a mortal threat to those who attempt to use these lands.
Translation by John Lindsay-Poland, Fellowship of Reconciliation
