The United States “is investigating” the discovery in a jungle area of ​​Panama of two helicopters, with apparently US military inscriptions, which have intrigued locals and visitors for years.

These debris are on the Chucantí hill, within a private reserve of the same name and which is located on the limits of the provinces of Darién and Panama, according to what EFE was able to witness. The rich biodiversity of the place has turned it into a research center attended by scientists from various latitudes, as well as ecotourists.

The fuselage and mechanical parts show the rigors of time outdoors in the jungle: the undergrowth is already part of what was once the structure of a helicopter cabin, in which you can still see iron painted orange, or perhaps a faded red, as well as mold and rust.

“ARMY813226” seems to be read, barely due to its deterioration, in one of those parts, while in another it is seen more clearly “cargo compartment maximum capacity 125 LBS. cargo must be adequately”.

“The US Embassy is aware of the two unidentified helicopters that were found last year. We are investigating the matter,” the US diplomatic delegation in the Central American country told EFE without further details.

A “mystery” in the jungle that has intrigued for decades

The biologist Guido Berguido, executive director of the Panama Forest Adopt Association, responsible for the Chucantí reserve, told EFE that the helicopters were already in place when it was born, in 2003.

“One of the things that caught my attention was that during the first visits we found two helicopters (…) it has been quite difficult to know what the story is,” said the scientific researcher.

What’s more, Berguido assures that the inhabitants of the surrounding areas have told him that the “aircraft were here when the first settlers arrived, more than 30 years ago.”

In view of the intrigue, “we have contacted the authorities of the United States Embassy” and even “personnel of the US air force” because one of them has the USARMY code, which gives us to understand that both belonged to the US Army. “, without having obtained an answer, said Berguido.

The presence of the remains attracts “the attention of visitors, ecotourists, who find it fascinating, especially the mystery of what happened,” said the director of Adopta Bosque.

“It’s really a mystery what happened here and we hope that soon we can have an official version,” Berguido told EFE.

What happened more than 30 years ago in Panama?

Some 39 years ago, in 1984, the United States Army moved to Georgia (USA) what is known as the School of the Americas, a military training center installed in Panama in 1946 that trained tens of thousands of Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency.

Out of its ranks were protagonists of bloody Latin American dictatorships such as Rafael Videla (Argentina), Efraín Ríos Montt (Guatemala) or Manuel Antonio Noriega (Panama).

38 years ago, in April 1985, a US Navy flight with two crew members failed to return to the carrier after training. In 2019, young locals located the remains of the aircraft inside the Santa Fe National Park, in the Panamanian province of Veraguas.

After a first search at the time of the disappearance, three more have been carried out, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, led by the International Agency for the Search and Recovery of Missing Persons (DPAA), on behalf of the US Navy, and the Panamanian Government, to locate the bodies of the crew members.

More than 33 years ago, on December 20, 1989, the United States mobilized 26,000 soldiers and used state-of-the-art weapons to capture Noriega (1934-2017) in Panama, the “strong man” who had de facto ruled this country since 1983.

Accused by the US Justice of drug trafficking, Noriega finally turned himself in on January 3, 1990.

Declassified documents published for the first time in December 2019 reiterate the figures of deaths known since then as official during the invasion: “202 civilians and 314 soldiers”, but unofficially there is talk of between 500 and 4,000 civilian deaths.

A truth commission created in Panama in 2016 has identified at least 350 victims of the invasion.