Abstract

Beltway Bandits

This article presents information on various political developments in the U.S. Two days after U.S. troops invaded Panama, Luis Riaño, a 27-year-old Panamanian, and his wife, Grettel, drove to the Paitilla Airport in Panama City. As Riaño and his wife entered the airport grounds, the Army opened fire. Grettel somehow survived, Luis was killed. "He was destroyed," says John Kiyonaga, former Army lawyer assigned to the Tenth Special Forces Group. Now with his brother David, an attorney who used to live in Panama, Kiyonaga is representing more than 100 Panamanian civilian victims of the invasion or relatives of those who were killed. The U.S. President George Bush Administration's scorn for citizens of troubled nations extends far beyond the dead and injured of Panama. A lawsuit recently filed by several unions and human rights groups charges that President Bush, U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills, Secretary of State James Baker and other Cabinet members involved in trade policy have callously disregarded a law that requires the United States to monitor worker rights in developing nations.