Panama: Remains of Gen. Omar Torrijos Stolen Deborah Tyroler

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5-4-1990 Panama: Remains Of Gen. Omar Torrijos Stolen Deborah Tyroler

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Recommended Citation Tyroler, Deborah. "Panama: Remains Of Gen. Omar Torrijos Stolen." (1990). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/noticen/3980

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in NotiCen by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 070661 ISSN: 1089-1560 Panama: Remains Of Gen. Omar Torrijos Stolen by Deborah Tyroler Category/Department: General Published: Friday, May 4, 1990

On May 2, Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) director Leslie Loaiza told reporters that the remains of Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera had been stolen from a chapel located in eastern Panama City. The robbery was reported by the general's son, Martin Torrijos. Torrijos Herrera led a military coup in October 1968 deposing then-president Arnulfo Arias Madrid. According to a security guard at the chapel site, at about 4 a.m. on May 1, two persons entered the chapel, and minutes after their departure, "a woman discovered that the urn containing the general's remains had been violated." Members of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) said stealing remains was an "extreme" act, mainly affecting Torrijos' family. Part of the responsibility for the robbery, they said, can be attributed to the current government's "irresponsible" desire to "erase history." Torrijos founded the PRD. Since the Dec. 20 invasion, the government of President Guillermo Endara has removed Torrijos' name from numerous public places and buildings, as well as from monuments erected in his memory. The Omar Torrijos International Airport, for instance, was changed to Tocumen International Airport. The city's largest recreational park, a mural in front of the legislative assembly building, and a mausoleum on the banks of the Panama Canal no longer bear the Torrijos name. Family members had earlier removed the urn containing the general's remains from the mausoleum mentioned above, which had been constructed for that purpose. The urn was moved to the chapel. (Basic data from Notimex, 05/02/90)

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