Sixty dictatorship victims’ bodies still unidentified

With former dictator general Manuel Antonio Noriega set to be released from a French jail in 2012, more than 60 bodies of victims of Panama’s military regime remain unidentified, although a fund existed for DNA tests.

The bodies, says La Prensa, were found in clandestine cemeteries near military barracks. There was an order from the Truth Commission, which was formed to investigate crimes committed during the dictatorship, to identify the bodies, but the work was never finished.
Deputy Director of Forensic Medicine José Vicente Pachar said the agency received the remains in 2005, but "there was never a formal request" from authorities to continue the work in identifying them.
Suspended Attorney General Ana Matilda Gómez said that, under her administration, there was a $4.5 million fund for DNA tests for unidentified bodies. but the money was never used for that reason. The lack of action has generated criticism from victims’ families, some of whom believe the reason was because many administrators and politicians, who remained in power, had been connected with the regime, and did not want to re-open discussion. The same people they argue, who do not want Noriega back in Panama to face justice because of possible revelations.
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