Panama Fails to Fulfill Agreements on Disappearances from Military Dictatorship

Six years ago, one of the groups, the Committee of Family Members of Assassinated and Disappeared Persons of the Hector Gallego Military Dictatorship, has repeatedly denounced that the friendly settlement has not been complied with, a fact that has been confirmed by the IACHR, which has reported this issue in its 2023 and 2024 reports. Through Report No. 102 of July 13, 2019, two friendly agreements were reached between the State and the groups of victims' families. All cases of forced disappearances and crimes denounced during the military regime (1968-1989) were brought before the IACHR. On September 9, 2025, Cofadepa-HG, in a note sent to Tania Reneaum Panszi, executive secretary of the IACHR, reiterated that the State has not complied with any of the agreements of Case No. 13.017-A, to the point that it has not even issued the Cabinet Decree on the friendly settlement. Cofadepa warns that Panama is a signatory to human rights treaties, and therefore, by failing to issue the Cabinet Decree on the reached agreement, it is violating the human rights of the victims of the Military Dictatorship. Another agreement was the drafting of a bill to declare June 9 as a Civic Day of Reflection for the Victims of the Military Dictatorship, which had to be approved by the Assembly and sanctioned by the Executive. The disappearance of Father Jesús Héctor Gallego in June 1971 became the second case to reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding the victims of the military dictatorship. Subsequently, in October 2012, the IACHR reached a friendly agreement between the State and the family of Rita Wald Jaramillo, a Chiriquí student leader who disappeared on March 27, 1977, thus preventing it from reaching the Court. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded that the Panamanian State is responsible for the impunity in the forced disappearance of the priest, who left his legacy in the district of Santa Fe, in the north of Veraguas. 'There is a great lack of communication between the State and Cofadepa-HG,' the note sent to the executive secretary of the IACHR states. It was also planned to erect a monument in honor of the victims, a responsibility corresponding to the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Over time, these cases were fragmented, with some presented individually, such as those of Portugal, Wald, and Gallego, while others were submitted by groups, one from Chiriquí and the other based in the capital. The agreement also included the preparation of the historical memory of the military regime period, and to date, it has not been included in the school curriculum. On August 12, 2008, the Inter-American Court condemned the State for the disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal, which occurred on May 14, 1970. 'Denying us comprehensive reparation without guarantees of non-repetition.'