Zak Hernández
Encyclopedia
Sergeant
Zak Hernández Laporte (b. 1970–June 10, 1992), was a 22-year-old member of the United States Army
who was killed in Panama City
when the Humvee in which he was riding was ambushed on the eve of President George H. W. Bush
's visit to Panama
. His accused murderer, Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
, was acquitted in 1997 in a trial mounted by Panama's judiciary. Two years later he was elected to Panama's National Assembly
and, in September 2007, was chosen by his peers as National Assembly President, an event which has generated protests from the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico. This event also jeopardized U.S. Congress' ratification of a Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Panama, a pact that was previously ratified by Panama and was, until Pedro Miguel Gonzalez's elevation, considered likely to receive bipartisan Congressional approval.
to their country. One of the main reasons behind the demonstrations was the invasion of Panama by the US
for the arrest and conviction of Head of State Manuel Noriega
in 1989, during which anywhere between 200 and 4,000 Panamanian civilians were killed by US forces. Among the protesters was Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
.
On that day Sgt. Hernández, a Puerto Rican
soldier stationed in the Panama Canal Zone
, and his comrade Sgt. Ronald Marshall, were in their Humvee on the outskirts of Panama City
, close to the area where the demonstrators were protesting, when suddenly they were ambushed. Hernández was killed and Marshall wounded.
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón was indicted in the United States Federal Court of Washington D.C., for Sgt. Hernández' murder and the attempted murder of Sgt. Marshall.
After disappearing to Cuba for several years, once his party
was returned to power, González Pinzón was brought by his late father, Gerardo Gonzalez (then President of the National Assembly and head of the PRD party) to "surrender himself" to Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares. After two years of confinement, González Pinzón was acquitted in a 1997 trial marred by witness intimidation, harassment of the prosecutor, and ex parte communications by the judge with Gonzalez's father and others. All seven jurors were civil servants who owed their jobs to the PRD. The U.S. government and other outside observers maintain that the trial was a sham resulting from Panama's notoriously corrupt judiciary, where influence peddling remains common. Longtime Gonzalez friend and now current PRD leader and Panamanian President, Martin Torrijos, was Vice Minister of Government and Justice at the time of Gonzalez's trial. In September 2007, González Pinzón was elected President of the National Assembly
, a position he no longer holds.
On September 4, 2007, the Senate of Puerto Rico
approved a resolution expressing its "profound preoccupation" that a person indicted for Sgt. Zak Hernández' murder has been elected president of the Panamanian National Assembly. During a previously scheduled courtesy visit to his office, then Senate President Kenneth McClintock
on September 6 presented a copy of the resolution to Panama Supreme Court Chief Magistrate Graciela Dixon
.
Key members of the U.S. Congress, such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and the committee's ranking Republican member, Charles Grassley (R-IA) have signaled that Gonzalez's elevation to National Assembly President represents an obstacle to Congress' ratification of the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement. (In assuming the presidency on September 1, 2007, Gonzalez said he would step down should he become an obstacle to FTA ratification by the U.S. Despite clear signals from the U.S. Congress and Bush Administration officials that he indeed poses such an obstacle, Gonzalez refused to step down but was not reelected in 2008.)
Zak Hernández' name appears on "El Monumento de la Recordación" (The Wall of Remembrance) at the Puerto Rico Capitol complex as the only Puerto Rican casualty in the 1992 United States military operation in Panama. The U.S. consulate in Panama also displays a plaque in memory of Zak Hernández.
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
Zak Hernández Laporte (b. 1970–June 10, 1992), was a 22-year-old member of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
who was killed in Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
when the Humvee in which he was riding was ambushed on the eve of President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
's visit to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. His accused murderer, Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón is a leading political figure in Panama who was indicted by a U.S. federal court in October 1992 for the June 10, 1992 killing of an American serviceman, Sgt. Zak Hernández, and the serious wounding of another, Sgt. Ronald T...
, was acquitted in 1997 in a trial mounted by Panama's judiciary. Two years later he was elected to Panama's National Assembly
National Assembly of Panama
The National Assembly , formerly the Legislative Assembly , is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Panama.It is a unicameral legislature, currently made up of 71 members, who serve five-year terms...
and, in September 2007, was chosen by his peers as National Assembly President, an event which has generated protests from the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico. This event also jeopardized U.S. Congress' ratification of a Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Panama, a pact that was previously ratified by Panama and was, until Pedro Miguel Gonzalez's elevation, considered likely to receive bipartisan Congressional approval.
Incident
On June 10, 1992, a group of Panamanians were protesting the scheduled visit of United States President George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
to their country. One of the main reasons behind the demonstrations was the invasion of Panama by the US
United States invasion of Panama
The United States Invasion of Panama, code-named Operation Just Cause, was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989. It occurred during the administration of U.S. President George H. W...
for the arrest and conviction of Head of State Manuel Noriega
Manuel Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno is a Panamanian politician and soldier. He was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989.The 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States removed him from power; he was captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on...
in 1989, during which anywhere between 200 and 4,000 Panamanian civilians were killed by US forces. Among the protesters was Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón is a leading political figure in Panama who was indicted by a U.S. federal court in October 1992 for the June 10, 1992 killing of an American serviceman, Sgt. Zak Hernández, and the serious wounding of another, Sgt. Ronald T...
.
On that day Sgt. Hernández, a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
soldier stationed in the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
, and his comrade Sgt. Ronald Marshall, were in their Humvee on the outskirts of Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
, close to the area where the demonstrators were protesting, when suddenly they were ambushed. Hernández was killed and Marshall wounded.
Pedro Miguel González Pinzón was indicted in the United States Federal Court of Washington D.C., for Sgt. Hernández' murder and the attempted murder of Sgt. Marshall.
After disappearing to Cuba for several years, once his party
Democratic Revolutionary Party
The Democratic Revolutionary Party is a Panamanian political party. It was founded in 1979 by the General Omar Torrijos, and is generally described as a party of the centre-left of the political spectrum.-History and creation:...
was returned to power, González Pinzón was brought by his late father, Gerardo Gonzalez (then President of the National Assembly and head of the PRD party) to "surrender himself" to Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares. After two years of confinement, González Pinzón was acquitted in a 1997 trial marred by witness intimidation, harassment of the prosecutor, and ex parte communications by the judge with Gonzalez's father and others. All seven jurors were civil servants who owed their jobs to the PRD. The U.S. government and other outside observers maintain that the trial was a sham resulting from Panama's notoriously corrupt judiciary, where influence peddling remains common. Longtime Gonzalez friend and now current PRD leader and Panamanian President, Martin Torrijos, was Vice Minister of Government and Justice at the time of Gonzalez's trial. In September 2007, González Pinzón was elected President of the National Assembly
National Assembly of Panama
The National Assembly , formerly the Legislative Assembly , is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Panama.It is a unicameral legislature, currently made up of 71 members, who serve five-year terms...
, a position he no longer holds.
International protest
His election was protested by the Government of the United States. Tom Casey, a spokesman for the United States State Department, said that the United States government was"deeply disappointed that the Panamian National Assembly elected Pedro Miguel González Pinzón from among its members" and that "The United States wants those responsible (for Zak Hernández' murder)...to face justice".
On September 4, 2007, the Senate of Puerto Rico
Senate of Puerto Rico
The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate is composed of 27 senators, representing eight constituent senatorial districts across the commonwealth, with two senators elected per district; an...
approved a resolution expressing its "profound preoccupation" that a person indicted for Sgt. Zak Hernández' murder has been elected president of the Panamanian National Assembly. During a previously scheduled courtesy visit to his office, then Senate President Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth D. McClintock-Hernández is the current Secretary of State of Puerto Rico. Mr. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign's National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, co-chaired Clinton's successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the...
on September 6 presented a copy of the resolution to Panama Supreme Court Chief Magistrate Graciela Dixon
Graciela Dixon
Graciela Dixon is an attorney and former Chief Justice of the Corte Suprema de Justicia de Panamá . She is widely considered to be the first woman of African descent to hold that position....
.
Key members of the U.S. Congress, such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and the committee's ranking Republican member, Charles Grassley (R-IA) have signaled that Gonzalez's elevation to National Assembly President represents an obstacle to Congress' ratification of the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement. (In assuming the presidency on September 1, 2007, Gonzalez said he would step down should he become an obstacle to FTA ratification by the U.S. Despite clear signals from the U.S. Congress and Bush Administration officials that he indeed poses such an obstacle, Gonzalez refused to step down but was not reelected in 2008.)
Zak Hernández' name appears on "El Monumento de la Recordación" (The Wall of Remembrance) at the Puerto Rico Capitol complex as the only Puerto Rican casualty in the 1992 United States military operation in Panama. The U.S. consulate in Panama also displays a plaque in memory of Zak Hernández.
See also
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- List of Puerto Rican military personnel
- Pedro Miguel González PinzónPedro Miguel González PinzónPedro Miguel González Pinzón is a leading political figure in Panama who was indicted by a U.S. federal court in October 1992 for the June 10, 1992 killing of an American serviceman, Sgt. Zak Hernández, and the serious wounding of another, Sgt. Ronald T...
- Panama Deception