Blocked drivers were not hostages

Government statements labeling stranded motorists on Panama's Trans America highway as “kidnapped” and “hostages” were wrong say legal authorities.

Former judge Esmeralda Troitiño warned that the concepts of "hostage" and "kidnapping" used by persons belonging to the Government, including President, Ricardo Martinelli, mean the involvement of the demonstrators in the commission of crimes.

She was referring to the six day blocking of the highway by indigenous protestors against mining in their homelands.

"On one hand [the government] states that it has  the Church as a facilitator for dialogue, but on the other, says the protest is a criminal act to qualify as a kidnapping or hostage taking. This is nonsense," she said.

She acknowledged that there were people who were denied transit through the closure of the road, but  to indicate that they were hostages is wrong.

In her view, human rights organizations in the country will have to decide.

Former Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez said that people stuck in the dam were breached the right to free movement enshrined in the Constitution, but they were not kidnapped.

"At no time was ransom demanded by the people affected… none of these received a direct action of violence. The situation was the result of a legitimate protest” she said.

The president of the National Bar Association Elias Ruben Rodriguez said that within the context of what happened the concept of kidnapping or hostage does not apply especially because "third parties affected by the closure of the movement were free to go on foot from where they were".