# Hugo Spadafora > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hugo_Spadafora > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hugo_Spadafora.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Spadafora > Source revision: 1350878916 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Short description|Panamanian revolutionary (1940–1985)}} {{family name hatnote|Spadafora|Franco|lang=Hispanic American}} {{Infobox person |name = Hugo Spadafora |image = HugoSpadaforaImage.jpg |caption = |birth_date = {{birth date|1940|09|6|mf=y}} |birth_place = [Chitré, Herrera](/source/Chitr%C3%A9%2C_Herrera), Panama |death_date = {{death date and age|1985|09|13|1940|09|6|mf=y}} |death_place = [La Concepción, Chiriquí](/source/La_Concepci%C3%B3n%2C_Chiriqu%C3%AD), Panama |death_cause = Murder |party = |occupation = Politician, commander of the [Victoriano Lorenzo](/source/Victoriano_Lorenzo) Brigade, physician, Vice-Minister of Health in [Omar Torrijos](/source/Omar_Torrijos)'s regime }} '''Hugo Spadafora Franco''' (September 6, 1940 – September 13, 1985) was a Panamanian physician and guerrilla fighter in [Guinea-Bissau](/source/Guinea-Bissau) and [Nicaragua](/source/Nicaragua). He criticized the military in [Panama](/source/Panama), which led to his murder by the government of [Manuel Noriega](/source/Manuel_Noriega) in 1985. ==Biography== Born in [Chitré](/source/Chitr%C3%A9), Spadafora was a physician, who graduated from the [University of Bologna](/source/University_of_Bologna), in Italy.Kinzer (2007: 242–244) He served as a combat medic with the independence guerrilla of Guinea-Bissau during the [Guinea-Bissau War of Independence](/source/Guinea-Bissau_War_of_Independence). Originally a critic of the military regime headed by [Omar Torrijos](/source/Omar_Torrijos), he served as its Vice-Minister of Health. In 1978, he organized the [Victoriano Lorenzo](/source/Victoriano_Lorenzo) Brigade, formed by a group of up to 1,200 Panamanian fighters to combat the [Anastasio Somoza Debayle](/source/Anastasio_Somoza_Debayle) regime in Nicaragua.{{cite report|last=Weathers, Jr.|first=Bynum E.|date=1983|title=Guerrilla Warfare in Nicaragua, 1975-1979|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA148248.pdf|publisher=[Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education](/source/Air_University_(United_States_Air_Force))|page=37|access-date=June 5, 2023}}{{cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/850812/summary|title=Omar Torrijos and the Sandinista Revolution|last=Brown|first=Jonathan C.|journal=The Latin Americanist|year=2022|volume=66|pages=25–45|doi=10.1353/tla.2022.0003|s2cid=247623108|url-access=subscription}} Concerned about the increased Soviet and [Cuba](/source/Cuba)n influence in the [Sandinista](/source/Sandinista) regime of Nicaragua and the delay of free elections, Spadafora joined the [Sandino Revolutionary Front](/source/Sandino_Revolutionary_Front) (FRS) alongside [Edén Pastora](/source/Ed%C3%A9n_Pastora) ("Comandante Cero"), hero of the August 1978 seizure of the National Palace in Nicaragua. The rise of [Manuel Noriega](/source/Manuel_Noriega) as authoritarian ruler of [Panama](/source/Panama) compelled Spadafora to denounce Noriega's protection of [drug trafficking](/source/Illegal_drug_trade). Spadafora was detained by Noriega's forces when entering Panama from [Costa Rica](/source/Costa_Rica) in September 1985, and his decapitated body was later found stuffed in a post office bag. The autopsy later found Spadafora's stomach full of the blood he had ingested during the slow severing of his head. He had also endured hours of severe torture, as is quoted in [Gary Webb](/source/Gary_Webb)'s ''[Dark Alliance](/source/Dark_Alliance_(book))'': "His body bore evidence of unimaginable tortures. The thigh muscles had been neatly sliced so he could not close his legs, and then something had been jammed up his rectum, tearing it apart. His testicles were swollen horribly, the result of prolonged garroting, his ribs were broken, and then, while he was still alive, his head had been sawed off with a butcher's knife."{{cite book|last=Webb|first=Gary|year=1999|pages=227|title=[Dark Alliance](/source/Dark_Alliance_(book))|publisher=[Seven Stories Press](/source/Seven_Stories_Press)|isbn=978-1-888363-93-7}} His head was never found. President [Nicolás Ardito Barletta](/source/Nicol%C3%A1s_Ardito_Barletta) tried to set up a commission to investigate the murder but was forced to resign by Noriega, which increased suspicions that the military had ordered the beheading. The brutality of the murder shocked many and it was a contributing factor to the deterioration of relations between the US and Noriega. Four years after the murder, the US under president [George H. W. Bush](/source/George_H._W._Bush) overthrew Noriega by invading Panama in 1989. It was not until the administration of President [Guillermo Endara](/source/Guillermo_Endara) in 1989, that a court found Noriega (''[in absentia](/source/trial_in_absentia)'') and other followers guilty of a conspiracy to murder Spadafora. In 2013, his biography ''Hugo Spadafora: Bajo la Piel del Hombre'' was published by [Amir Valle](/source/Amir_Valle), a Cuban journalist, literary critic and writer exiled in Germany.{{Cite news|last=Usi| first=Eva|title=Amir Valle: 'Volveré a Cuba cuando nadie me imponga condiciones'|lang=es|work=[Deutsche Welle](/source/Deutsche_Welle)|access-date=June 5, 2023|date=November 7, 2018|url=https://www.dw.com/es/amir-valle-volver%C3%A9-a-cuba-cuando-nadie-me-imponga-condiciones/a-44637510|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315151920/https://www.dw.com/es/amir-valle-volver%C3%A9-a-cuba-cuando-nadie-me-imponga-condiciones/a-44637510|archive-date=March 15, 2023|url-status=live}} == Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References == * {{cite book | last = Kinzer | first = Stephen | title = Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Paperback) | publisher = Times Books | date = February 2007 | location = | isbn = 978-0-8050-8240-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/overthrow00step }} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Spadafora, Hugo}} Category:1940 births Category:1985 deaths Category:People from Chitré Category:Panamanian people of Italian descent Category:Military doctors Category:Panamanian medical doctors Category:Panamanian murder victims Category:Panamanian activists Category:Guerrilla warfare theorists Category:Panamanian torturees Category:People murdered in Panama Category:People of the Nicaraguan Revolution Category:Deaths by decapitation Category:University of Bologna alumni --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hugo Spadafora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Spadafora) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Spadafora?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.