The Panama Deception (1992)

Director:

Barbara Trent

Writer:

David Kasper (writer)

Release Date:

31 July 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Tagline:

Exposing The Cover Up!

Plot:

A film about the true reasons for the 1989 US invasion of Panama and big media complicity in these activities.

Plot Keywords:

Panama | Invasion | Media | Military | Truth

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Elizabeth Montgomery	...	Herself (Narrator) (voice)
Abraham Alvarez	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Carlos Cantú	...	English Voice-over (voice) (as Carlos Cantu)
Diviana Ingravallo	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Alma Martinez	...	English Voice-over (voice)
Lou Diamond Phillips	...	English Voice-over (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ashton Bancroft	...	Himself (president, Refugee Committee)
Manuel Becker	...	Himself (Panamanian cameraman)
Larry Birns	...	Himself (Council on Hemispheric Affairs)
Esmeralda Brown	...	Herself (UN Methodist Office)
Humberto Brown	...	Himself (former Panamanian diplomat)
Eugene Carroll	...	Himself (Center for Defense Information) (as Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll)
Julio Cesar Guerra	...	Himself (Panamanian photojournalist)
Ramsey Clark	...	Himself
Jeff Cohen	...	Himself (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting)
Isabel Corro	...	Herself (Association of the Dead of December 20th)
Jose De Jesus Martinez	...	Himself (author, professor)
Roberto Durán	...	Himself (as Roberto Duran)
Guillermo Ford	...	Himself (Vice-President of Panama) (also archive footage)
Gavrielle Gemma	...	Herself (director, Independent Commission of Inquiry)
Balbina Herrera de Periñan	...	Herself (Panamanian National Assembly)
Mark Hertsgaard	...	Himself (author, journalist)
Alejandro James Jr.	...	Himself (US Agency for International Development)
Robert Knight	...	Himself (investigative journalist)
Peter Kornbluh	...	Himself (senior analyst, National Security Archive)
David MacMichael	...	Himself (former CIA analyst)
Robert Matthews	...	Himself (New York University) (as Prof. Robert Matthews)
Olga Mejia	...	Herself (National Human Rights Commission)
Jose Morin	...	Himself (Center for Constitutional Rights)
Rafael Olivardia	...	Himself (community leader, El Chorrio)
Michael Parenti	...	Himself (author, professor)
Charles Rangel	...	Himself (as Rep. Charles Rangel)
Peter Dale Scott	...	Himself (author, professor)
Cecilio Simon	...	Himself (University of Panama) (as Prof. Cecilio Simon)
Maxwell Thurman	...	Himself (commander, US Army, Southern Command) (as Gen. Maxwell Thurman)
Valerie Van Isler	...	Herself (international journalist)
Doug Vaughan	...	Himself (investigative journalist)
Sabina Virgo	...	Herself (US national labour organizer)
Pete Williams	...	Himself (Pentagon Spokesperson)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M

Movie Connections:

Features "NBC Nightly News" (1970)

Soundtrack:

Bomba de Navidad

11 year-old Panamanian during the invasion

I wanted to write just to share some light on the issue of U.S. foreign policy but after reading the posts here I'm glad to see that not all Americans are short-minded and/or blind about their government, or supporting it even though they know what things they do just believing thats what a good "patriot" do. I would say a good patriot is what a lot of the people here posting are doing because it shows the world there's still hope the U.S. can become the country it's supposed to be as it was intended by the U.S. constitution. Patriotic is not defending the U.S. blindly just because is your country.

Let me just say I was 11 years old at the time and a lover of the USA (I had already been in Disney World :)) but two months prior to the invasion Americans surrounded my neighborhood, closed the roads, put cutting wire, armored vehicles, helicopters flying etc. (they did this because there were still some Americans living there, although imagine that were you live Chinese soldiers take control over the area, in a nice town of Florida, I don't think you would like that) and I have to walk home (I was returning from my school, still in the uniform) and an American started pointing me with this huge machine gun attached at the top of an AV (I guess now that was an M-60) and kept following me as I walk. Let me tell you, that can change your life. During the invasion I have to stay down under my bed for almost two weeks until it ended. Not an experience I would like to repeat.

Believe me or not, the video not only is unbiased, but is actually missing even more. For all of you who think is biased, just remember, everything you were hearing about the invasion was good things, like the US government was doing "just" a favor to the Panamanian people, that "all" of us loved it, etc. Obviously these guys wanted to tell the truths the US gov. didn't say and exposed the lies they did say. So in that aspect, yo better believe they were biased, that's the intention of the video, to go against what they told us, not to make it appear as if they were doing the film from a neutral point of view and that the conclusion of the film was what they told us on it.

I read some people here was mad saying it was all lies but they were never in Panama, not before, during, nor after. Then how can they say is not true? I know this people don't like hearing negative things about their country, but imagine, I'm not only hearing hypocrisies about the reasons of the invasion, which offends me, but also a lot of my fellow countrymen died.

Well, I wrote more stuff but its too long to fit in here, if I create a homepage in the future, I'll post it and give a link here. Peace out