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Taking advantage of the chemical weapon crisis in Syria, the government of Panama has reminded the United-States their obligation to destroy the chemical weapons that they had left on San Jose island, the biggest of the country.

When they signed the treaty banning chemical weapons, in 1997, the US falsly declared not to posses any such weapons outside of their own territory. An inventory established in 2002 by Panama showed the presence of numerous weapons and munitions, dating back to different years. At least 16 different sites were used by the Pentagon to test chemical weapons in Panama.

For 11 years, Panama has been vainly requesting to destruction of phosgene and mustard gas in particular, and of over 120 000 munitions. During that period, at least 20 people died accidentally because of these weapons.

The Department of State indicated it's intention of complying rapidly to these obligations, so long as Panama's request to the Haye is modified : it would then be concerning weapons ''forgotten'' by the US, and not ''left''. This semantic change would enable Washington to keep it's reputation untarnished and to avoid international judiciary consequences due to it's false declaration, even though the above photograph clearly shows US soldiers manipulating these weapons in Panama in 1998.

(Translation
Alizée Ville)