Originally Posted by
Bilbodoggins
Part V: Endgame
I have purposely not said how long we were incarceratd at Carcel Modelo because I wanted to give people a sense of what it was like for us not knowing wihat was happening. As I mentioned, we saw a US military official once and a Panamanian lawyer once, both within the first week after our arrest. No other with any officials. Our friends from the Navy base visited a couple of times to bring us books and a little money, but they didn't know wihat was going on, either.
So, the days passed and things became routine. We read books, played chess, listened to a small transistor radio (I loved hearing "Let the Sunshine In" in Spanish). I wrote some songs. One was about the "Cardboard Man" who was the source of our sleeping pallets.
And then, on the evening of day 59, the guard called out "Henry ___, gather your things, come to the front!"
"What? Are they letting him go because he's the one of us that's married?"
But then, in succession, "David ___, gather your stuff...
Michael ___, gather your stuff..
James___, gather your stuff...
And then a horrible thought hit me. "They're taking us to Cueva!!! They're going at night so the American authorities don't find out!!!
We looked at each other and I could tell my friends were tdhinking the same thing.
As the guards walked to a rear entrance where there was a waiting van with engine running, I thought to myself, "I can't let this happen. I have to make a run for it. Should I do at as soon as the door opens or wait til we get to the pier?"
I decided to wait because the van was still inside the prison walls.
So I sat, terrified, as the van pulled through the gate. But I soon noticed that instead of heading toward the water, we were entering an upscale neighborhood with many large, fancy looking residences.
We stopped in the long circular driveway of one residence and got out. There were national Guardsmen all around as we were escorted inside and told to go into a large office.
There, to my utter shock and surprise were, Henry's wife, Michael's father (from Boston), and... the civilian President of Panama! (Not Omar Torrijos, the Head of the National Guard). Several other government officials who never said anything.
The President said to us "We now believe you were set up at the roadblock, so we are letting you go. The guardia who were responsible will be punished. I just need to know one thing, was the marijuana really yours? We're letting you go anyway, but I don't want to punish anyone who doesn't deserve it."
I was so overcome with gratitude that I told him, "the Marijuana was mine, thanks for letting us go!"
Really? NO, of course not. We continued to deny any knowledge of illegal substances.
And then? The most bizarre moment in this whole story!
The President walked over, and silently put a single dollar bill in each of our shirt pockets!!!
To this day I can't figure out what that was about.
that's just about it. I'll post a brief ending part probably tomorrow...