The Enforced Disappearance and Killing of Héctor Gallego
Three former National Guard members were convicted, but Gallego’s remains and the wider chain of responsibility remain unresolved.
Open case file →This evidence-led archive documents eight distinct records, including Héctor Gallego’s disappearance, the La Joyita prison massacre, Mónica Serrano's disappearance, the Albrook executions, El Terrón, Heliodoro Portugal, Hugo Spadafora and the Bocas del Toro murders. Each file separates verdicts, allegations and international findings.
Only cases with a verified conviction or equivalent judicial resolution appear here. Reported appeals are identified separately.
Three former National Guard members were convicted, but Gallego’s remains and the wider chain of responsibility remain unresolved.
Open case file →A deadly confrontation in Pavilion 14 led to twelve aggravated-homicide convictions and 50-year sentences. Appeals and a separate alleged-organizer inquiry remain open.
Open case file →The 18-month-old vanished from Vista Alegre. Six people received final deprivation-of-liberty convictions, but Mónica remains missing.
Open case file →Officers captured after a failed 1989 uprising against Manuel Noriega were executed. Panamanian courts later imposed separate homicide sentences tied to Moisés Giroldi and nine other officers.
Open case file →A pregnant woman and six children were killed in a remote community. Two defendants received 47-year terms and seven received 50-year terms.
Open case file →The physician and military-government critic was detained in September 1985 and found killed near the Costa Rican border. Manuel Noriega and two co-defendants later received 20-year terms.
Open case file →Five people were killed and their property taken. William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese were convicted in 2017; later appeals were reported, but no reliable final appellate ruling was located.
Open case file →State-responsibility findings are not presented as individual criminal convictions.
Eight verified files are currently published: Héctor Gallego, La Joyita, Mónica Serrano, El Terrón, Albrook, Heliodoro Portugal, Hugo Spadafora and the Bocas del Toro murders.
A December 2019 confrontation in Pavilion 14 produced a prosecution for 13 aggravated homicides and 11 attempts. Twelve defendants received 50-year sentences in 2026; appeals and a separate alleged-organizer inquiry remain open.
Seven people were killed in January 2020. Nine defendants later received prison sentences through plea agreements or jury verdicts.
State agents seized him in Panama City on May 14, 1970. His remains were identified in 2000, and the Inter-American Court held Panama responsible in 2008.
He was detained in September 1985 and found killed near the Costa Rican border. Three men were later convicted.
The name refers here to five killings for which William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese were convicted in 2017.
The international judgment established state responsibility, but no final individual criminal conviction was located.
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