Group Says It Bombed Panama Disco, Downed 2 Helicopters

A terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the fatal crash of two U.S. helicopters and the bombing of a discotheque, and it threatened more attacks on Americans and U.S. property.

The group calls itself the Dec. 20 Movement, or M-20, and is the first terrorist group to surface since the Dec. 20 U.S. invasion that overthrew military dictator Gen. Manuel A. Noriega.

One U.S. soldier was killed, and 16 American military personnel and 12 Panamanians were injured in the grenade attack on the discotheque Feb. 28.

The U.S. Southern Command said the March 2 helicopter crashes near Colon, at the northern end of the Panama Canal, killed 11 soldiers, and it blamed bad weather conditions for the crashes.

The Dec. 20 Movement asserted in a handout distributed Friday in the western city of David that 30 soldiers died.

“It was not an accident as they have said,” it said.

The U.S. Southern Command made no comment on the statement.

Government and Justice Minister Ricardo Arias Calderon said authorities did not have enough information to confirm that M-20 was responsible for the bombing. He said it also appeared to involve a dispute among drug traffickers.

Rosendo Samudio Bonagas, a member of the small communist Party of the People, was arrested Friday in David in connection with distributing the fliers, and authorities said they were seeking two other people, Panama City newspapers reported Saturday.

“We will attack everything we find in our path, especially property of the United States,” the flier said. “We will avenge our dead. . . . A soldier, dressed in civilian clothes or in uniform, will be executed.

“Our principal objective is everything that smells of gringos. We ask Panamanians not to go around with them because they will be in danger.”

M-20 also threatened the David International Fair, an agriculture and trade fair that opened Friday, and Panamanian President Guillermo Endara and President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.