Jesús Héctor Gallego Herrera (died June 1971) was a Colombian

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

who was kidnapped and killed in Panama following his opposition to the Panamanian military ruler

Omar Torrijos Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – July 31, 1981) was the Panamanian military leader of Panama, as well as the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially ...

Life

Gallego organized peasant cooperatives in

Santa Fé District Santa Fe is a district (''distrito'') of Veraguas Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,890; the latest official estimate (for 2019) is 17,341.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district, whi ...

of Panama's

Veraguas Province Veraguas () is a province of Panama, located in the centre-west of the country. The capital is the city of Santiago de Veraguas. It is the only Panamanian province to border both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It covers an area of 10,587.6&n ...

, where his work angered both landowners and officials of the ruling

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

. He disappeared from Santa Fé on June 9, 1971.

Investigation and convictions

On November 20, 1993, three soldiers were convicted of his abduction and murder. Eugenio Nelson Magallon, one of the three convicted, was convicted ''in absentia'', as he had been a fugitive since the 1989

US invasion of Panama The United States invaded Panama in mid-December 1989 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. The purpose of the invasion was to depose the ''de facto'' ruler of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by U.S. authorities for racket ...

. The trial led to a national debate in Panama over the reputation of Torrijos, who was popularly seen by some as a

benevolent dictator Benevolent dictatorship is a term that describes a government in which an authoritarian leader exercises absolute political power over the state but is perceived to do so with regard for the benefit of the population as a whole. Characteristic ...

. In December 2000, human remains were discovered at a Panamanian National Guard base, incorrectly believed to be Gallego's. President

Mireya Moscoso Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez (born 1 July 1946) is a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1999 to 2004. She is the country's first and to date only female president. Born into a rural family, Moscoso became act ...

appointed a

Truth Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

to investigate the site and those at other bases. In 2002, the commission concluded that Gallego had been

forcibly disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing ...

but that the remains were not his.

References

Bibliography

* 1971 deaths 20th-century Colombian Roman Catholic priests Panamanian activists People murdered in Panama Year of birth missing 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Colombian people murdered abroad {{Panama-bio-stub