[CPEO-MEF] Panama wants U.S. to clear explosives from former ranges

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Lethal legacy 
Panama wants U.S. to clear explosives from former ranges 

Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer  

Cerro Silvestre, Panama -- The explosion that killed Jenny de 
Villareal's teenage son Alival ripped out the heart of the narrow street 
where she has lived for almost two decades. 

The blast in this Panama City suburb also killed her niece's husband and 
maimed a nephew, who lost his lower left leg. The two men had gone to a 
nearby U.S. firing range to collect metal to sell for scrap. Alival, 13, 
an ever- curious honor student, was examining their haul when a rusty 
mortar shell they had brought back exploded. 

At first, Villareal, 52, calmly detailed an account of the 1988 
accident. But Villareal, who helps runs the family's tiny food store, 
broke down after recalling how her son's death devastated her husband, 
who hardly left the house for years after the accident. 

Alival is one of 24 fatalities since 1979 from unexploded grenades, 
bombs and other ordnance left on three once-isolated U.S. firing ranges, 
according to a former official at Panama's ministry of foreign 
relations. 

Now, three years after the transfer of the Panama Canal and the 
withdrawal of the U.S. military, this explosive legacy now borders on 
some of the fastest growing areas in Panama. About 100,000 people live 
nearby. 

Over the years, the U.S. military primarily used the ranges for 
live-fire training and testing of weapons ranging from land mines to 
cluster bombs. Panamanian forces participated in occasional joint 
exercises until relations soured with then-dictator Manuel Noriega in 
the mid-1980s. 

This article can be viewed in its entirety at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/05/27/MN109275.DTL

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