Isla de San José

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Isla de San José
Waters Gulf of Panama
Archipelago Pearl Islands
Geographical location 8 ° 16 ′  N , 79 ° 7 ′  W Coordinates: 8 ° 16 ′  N , 79 ° 7 ′  W
Isla de San José (Panama)
Isla de San José
length 12 km
width 7.1 km
surface 44 km²
Residents 10 (2000)
<1 inh / km²
main place Hacienda del Mar

Isla de San José is the second largest of the pearl islands in the Gulf of Panama . The island has an area of ​​44 km² and a population of 10 people (2000 census). The island is privately owned and has a stony coast with more than 50 beaches. The island has an airfield.

Chemical weapons test site

In 1944, US technicians and military personnel began testing chemical weapons on the then uninhabited island . Great Britain and Canada were involved. According to Schmidt-Häuer, the US magazine “Armed Forces Chemical Journal” wrote in 1948 that more than 130 tests were carried out with mustard gas , cyanogen chloride , butane , napalm and hydrogen cyanide . "More than 30,000 chemical bombs were detonated," reported the Canadian newspaper National Post . In 1948 the tests in San José ended after thousands of people protested in the capital, Panama City .

In 1999 the Panama Canal , which was previously administered by the USA, fell to Panama. In the transfer agreements, the USA undertook to eliminate dangers to life and health at its bases. In the years before the handover of the canal, US officials had assured that this had happened.

In the 1990s, poison gas bombs left behind were discovered, people were killed by exploding ammunition or burned by leaking containers. In 2002, experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) discovered eight chemical weapons on the island. There were six aircraft bombs suspected of being phosgene . Another bomb probably contained cyanogen chloride. The eighth bomb was described as empty and rusted through.

In January 2018, the US Army announced that it had disposed of the eight chemical weapons discovered in San José in 2002. Soldiers from the 48th Chemical Weapons Brigade were deployed.

literature

  • Christian Schmidt-Häuer: Panama crime scene: conquistadors, canal builders, tax evaders. 500 years of colonization and globalization. Westfälisches Dampfboot Verlag, Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-89691-292-3 .
  • John Lindsay-Poland: Emperors in the Jungle. The Hidden History of the US in Panama . Duke University Press, Durham 2003, ISBN 9780822384601 .
  • Susan L. Smith: Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States . Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 2017, ISBN 978-0813586090 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Christian Schmidt-Häuer: Poison gas in paradise. Zeit Online , August 22, 2018, accessed January 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Guido Bilbao: The poisoned paradise. Le Monde diplomatique , online edition, April 7, 2016, accessed January 24, 2019 .
  3. ^ David Pugliese: Chemical Weapons From Secret Canadian-US Mustard Gas Program in Panama to be Destroyed. National Post , online edition, July 17, 2017, accessed January 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Christian Schmidt-Häuer, Poison Gas in Paradise, in: Die Zeit, online edition, August 22, 2018; https://www.zeit.de/2018/35/panama-usa-chemiewaffen-militaer-krieg
  5. ↑ Patrizia Aymerich, Why does the US have chemical weapons in Panama ?, in: Panamá Today, online edition, July 19, 2017 (in English); https://www.panamatoday.com/panama/why-does-us-have-chemical-weapons-panama-4728 ; accessed on January 26, 2019
  6. ^ OPCW: Panama. Concept Plan For The Destruction of Eight Old Chemical Weapons, June 16, 2017, accessed January 26, 2019; https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/EC/85/en/ec85nat02_e_.pdf
  7. ↑ Suzan Holl, 20th CBRNE Command Public Affairs, 2nd Chemical Battalion team destroys WWII munitions, January 26, 2018; accessed on January 26, 2019; https://www.army.mil/article/199709/2nd_chemical_battalion_team_destroys_wwii_munitions