Lawyers call for heads of security minister and plice chiefs

A criminal complaint calling for an investigation of Panama’s the security minister, Jose Raul Mulino, the police chief, Gustavo Perez, and chiefs of police areas in the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui and Veraguas has been filed by a group of 11 lawyers.

The people named are identified as those “who led the repression of indigenous people "in Changuinola where two were killed and scores injured, including partial or total blindness in confrontations with police.
The complaint is for the alleged commission of the crime of murder, abuse of authority and violation of duties.

 The plaintiffs also request the immediate removal of Mulino, Perez, and police chiefs.

The group says that during the riots two weeks ago in Changuinola, six people were killed and not two as officially recognized by the Government.

They argue that there were six bodies in the Changuinola morgue including several children, presumed killed by suffocation and other injuries from the clashes.

They also ask  for clarification of the death of Leandro Santos, whose body was found in a banana grove near where Virgilio Castillo,died. Castillo was one of the two victims recognized by the state.

The group also want an investigation of the whereabouts of Valentin Palacios,38, a Bocas worker, who disappeared on July 8.

So far, prosecutors have not opened an official investigation into the deaths in Changuinola, or into the "excessive use" of force by police to suppress protests.
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