Spain Sends Plane to Bring Home Body of Slain Journalist
MADRID — Spain has sent a plane to Panama to evacuate Spaniards and to bring home the body of a Spanish photographer shot to death by U.S. soldiers during their invasion of the Central American nation.
Government spokeswoman Rosa Conde told a news conference the plane will land in Costa Rica if it could not land in Panama.
Juan Antonio Rodriguez, a 32-year-old free-lance photographer who worked for Madrid’s El Pais newspaper, died after U.S. troops shot him outside the Marriott Hotel in Panama City on Thursday.
El Pais journalist Maruja Torres, who was with Rodriguez, said he was killed after identifying himself as a journalist.
Two other photographers, one French and one British, were wounded.
Conde called Rodriguez’s death “absurd.” The Spanish government has asked Washington to explain the incident while Spanish newspapers, photographers and journalists planned to stage a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and hand over a letter of protest.
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