by Maria Alejandra Carrasquilla
PANAMA CITY, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- After almost 37 years of waiting, Roberto Adolfo Aparicio Oliva was finally laid to rest on Monday at the Jardin de Paz Cemetery in a solemn ceremony honoring the victims of the U.S. invasion and commemorating Panama's defense of its national sovereignty.
Aparicio Oliva was a 21-year-old soldier fighting U.S. troops on Dec. 20, 1989. After disappearing during the combat, his fate had remained unknown until 2020, when a government initiative recovered and identified his remains through DNA testing.
"There is a sense of calm, I wouldn't call it happiness, but there is peace in knowing that my brother, Roberto Adolfo Aparicio Oliva, was a hero, and that the cycle of uncertainty can finally close now that his remains have been found," Jessica Aparicio Oliva, the sister of the fallen soldier, told Xinhua.
The family's decades-long pain stems from the U.S. invasion of Panama. Dubbed "Operation Just Cause" by Washington, the incursion continued into January 1990.
The U.S. operation resulted in the dissolution of the Panamanian Armed Forces. The invasion significantly impacted the history, political and otherwise, of the Central American country, resulting in an undetermined number of casualties.
In 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held the U.S. responsible for human rights violations during the invasion and recommended reparations.
Search and identification efforts have since advanced.
According to a commission report provided to Xinhua, by September 2026, 71 graves had been exhumed at Jardin de Paz and Monte Esperanza cemeteries, with 203 family DNA samples cataloged for matching.
Additionally, 51 sets of remains and seven incinerated cases are undergoing forensic and genetic analysis.
Panama's Registry of Victims now lists 444 names, including 239 victims confirmed and 205 under investigation.
Jose Luis Sosa, executive secretary of the December 20th Commission, said that returning victims' remains to their families is one of the most significant forms of reparation, adding that the United States bears an "inescapable" responsibility for the consequences of the invasion.
For Jessica, her brother's identification marks not the end of the search, but a step toward bringing closure to many more families still waiting for answers.
"We must persist until ... all the families achieve the same peace and inner tranquility that our family has now found," she said.
Calling the day of the U.S. invasion a painful chapter in Panama's collective memory, she emphasized that those who gave their lives in the struggle must be remembered by generations to come.
"The fight is not about defending any single individual. Rather, it is about defending our nation's sovereignty to the very end," she said. "May this tragic date never be forgotten."
"Let us hope that we never have to experience an invasion by any foreign military force again." ■
