Relative of disappeared priest writes to repentant Noriega

THE SISTER of a ”disappeared” priest during the Panama dictatorship era has written to former dictator, Manuel Antonio Noriega,, to ask where his remains lie.

Edilma Gallego , sister of Jesuit priest Hector Gallego, who disappeared in June 1971 , says: “ If Noriega has actually repented and given his heart to God , he could detail the events of the disappeared during the military dictatorship ," she said .

She said that after the failure of the Truth Commission, created in 2001 during the administration of President Mireya Moscoso , and the lack of attention given by the State to the families of those who disappeared, she has decided to go to the InterAmerican– Human Rights body (IACHR to submit a request to separate the cases of Alexis Guerra , Jesus Hector Gallego and Cecilio Serracín from a collective case presented to the Truth Commission in 2003 .

Gallego explained that she will simultaneously present individual claims against the Panamanian government for each of these cases repeatedly denied justice.
For Alexis Guerra , killed on May 10, 1989 , she will file a complaint against the United States as US Army soldiers who detained the brothers , Manuel and Javier Guerra , deprived them of their freedom and abandoned them outside of the country, thus preventing them from participating in research.
According to Gallego, despite being in Panama for 15 years and making many approaches to various governments and institutions , there is still no evidence of the whereabouts of Hector Gallego and most of those wh0disappeared during the dictatorship .