Police contradict evidence of gunshots against protestors

In spite of autopsy reports following  the death of a young protestor in Chiriqui, and sequence photographs in La Estrella showing a police officer drawing and firing a pistol, Panama’s National Police (PN) chief claims that bullets were not used against protesting Indians last week.

Gustavo Perez, said Thursday that state officials did not use bullets in operations to clear the Panamerican Highway in Chiriqui.

No permission was given for the use of bullets in that operation he said.

However, says La Prensa more of the PN were photographed in San Felix pointing guns at Ngobe Bugle and the Ministry of Health and the Ombudsman's Office said  several of the wounded had gunshot wounds.

Asked about the autopsy report in the case of a 16 year-old on February 7 in Las Lomas, Chiriqui, Perez avoided talking about the contradiction between cause of death certified by Forensic Medicine and the official version.

On the day of the event, the PN issued a statement in which the young man's death was  attributed to an explosion, and stated that they  found by "two fuel containers and remnants of fireworks rockets."

But the director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Humberto Mas, said Wednesday that the autopsy revealed that  the craniofacial trauma that killed the teenager was not caused by any explosion, but by a blunt object traeling at high speed, and the hypothesis among experts is the possibility that the object was a tear gas canister.

Perez described as "political games" allegations of abuse and violations directed against protesters."If there was any police misconduct, be sure that we take action he said.

The Ombudswoman Patria Portugal, however, called for an investigation of the allegations, while the Iberoamerican Federation of Ombudsmean sent a letter to president, Ricardo Martinelli, expressing concern about the police assault on Portugal during the protests.