United States left chemical-weapons landfills after experiments in Panama
United States left chemical-weapons landfills after experiments in Panama
The Pentagon agreed to clean up a Panamanian island in the Pacific Ocean that American, Canadian and British troops used as a toxic waste dumping site during the 20th century
José Meléndez San José (Costa Rica) 4 OCT 2013 - 17:49 CET
Dangerous landfills containing tons of bombs and munitions for chemical weapons - mustard gas and asphyxiating, nerve-damaging, and poisonous agents - used by the U.S. in military experiments to prepare for the invasion of Japan in World War II (1939 -1945) and for the Vietnam War (1964 -1975), were left behind in San José.
San José is a small Panamanian island in the Pacific Ocean and the second largest island in the archipelago Las Perlas. It is located about 80 kilometers to the south of the mainland, within a military zone near the Panama Canal.
The dumps and landfills are part of the legacy the U.S. left at the end of its military intervention in Panama in 1999. U.S. troops had entered the country in 1903. During their stay they used San José as a platform for chemical-weapons experiments, with the help of the Canadian and British armies from 1943 to 1947.
"There are apparently six bombs that have not been detonated and they may contain mustard gas and phosgene," said Tomás Cabal, director general of Anti-Terrorism Analysis in Panama's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cabal is one of the officials in charge of negotiations with Washington. "This is what was left in San José: five 1,000 or 2,000-pound bombs and another 500-pound one," he said. "The danger is not so much the chemicals, which we think could have been neutralized. The danger is in the bombs because they also contain conventional explosives which may still be active," he told EL PAÍS in an interview.
More:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/10/04/inenglish/1380901762_139978.html
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