Page 98 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

And then, on the morning of May 30, as the fraudulent president elect
credentials were being banded to Barletta, violence again broke out. This time,
however, it was not PRD hoodlums who were doing the beating but members of the
Defense Forces anti-riot squad.
Transcribed below are some paragraphs from the column Hoy por Hoy,
published in page 1A of La Prensa, on May 31, that accurately express our feelings in
connection with these events:

“Yesterday’s barbaric behavior on the part of the Defense
Forces cannot be explained, let alone justified, by the
disturbances created a few minutes earlier by some
demonstrators as they blocked traffic along Balboa Avenue

and set fire to an official bus on Mexico Avenue.
If the police intended to restore order following a temporary
disturbance, all they had to do was to break up the
41

demonstrations, as had been done several times during
recent days; there would have been no more disturbances

and unnecessary force would not have had to be used. But
on this occasion the forces of law and order vented their
anger viciously and with premeditation, upon helpless
people, indiscriminately beating women, old men, teenagers

and even two priests watching, horrified, their savage
onslaught. A few moments later, the forces of ‘order’ broke
into the Opposition Alliance headquarters, smashing
furniture, destroying installations, and causing major

damages… This irrational violence against people and
property, more suited to a gang of outlaws than to the police
force of a civilized nation, must be denounced by all, in

Panama and abroad, who harbor some measure of respect
for human dignity, so grievously and unfairly trampled”.

It was certainly a savage display of police brutality. The photographs in
exhibit 41 show the brutality unleashed upon ADO supporters. According to “En Pocas
Palabras” in La Prensa of June 1, a pregnant woman had a miscarriage following a
police force beating. Father Fernando Guardia, also beaten, had this to say: “I stayed

41
… one witness saw opposition flags and buttons being given out at UNADE headquarters to the
subjects that set fire to the Civil Aeronautic bus. This incident was the pretext the “Dobermans” [the
Guard’s anti-riot forces] seized upon to smash ADO headquarters and crack skulls left and right”. “En
Pocas Palabras”, La Prensa, June 15, 1984, page 12C.