Panama City

last updated 8 January 2015

Latin America

Legislator is wanted for murder: The new president of Panama’s National Assembly is a suspected murderer, the U.S. State Department said this week. Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, elected last week as presiding officer of the Panamanian legislature, is wanted in the U.S. for the 1992 shooting death of a U.S. Army sergeant, Zak Hernandez Laporte, and the attempted murder of another soldier; both were shot near Panama City during President George H.W. Bush’s visit to the country. American investigators linked Gonzalez to the crime, though he was acquitted in a Panamanian court. He still faces murder charges in the U.S. The State Department said those involved in the shootings should “face justice.”