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by Fiona G. Holter, USAICoE Staff Historian
On July 7, 1941, Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP) agents serving with the Caribbean Defense Command (CDC), under the command of Lt. Gen. Daniel Van Voorhies, in Panama investigated the Cotito Massacre. It was one of many special investigations led by the Panama Canal Department CIP agents in the early years of the Second World War.
In July 1922, the first two CIP agents arrived in Panama to support Army troops stationed in the Canal Zone—a strip of territory surrounding the Panama Canal leased by the U.S. from the Republic of Panama. The defense of the canal, which opened in 1914, was strategically significant to the U.S. because of the vital connection it offered between the Atlantic and Pacific. Between 1922 and 1941, the need for counterintelligence protection increased as new military construction projects began and more civilian contractors arrived in the region. Every new project increased the potential of enemy espionage and sabotage.
Prior to the Second World War, CIP duties in Panama were comprised of routine security measures focusing on investigating civilian contractors employed on the military projects. The agents also monitored labor agitation, movements of foreigners, traffic of contraband explosives and small arms, and questionable intelligence activities in the cabarets in the Panama Canal Zone. Most of these did not require investigation; however, the CIP often investigated special political and criminal cases in the region for any indication of subversion. The CIP began one such case in July 1941.
In accordance with Panamanian law in 1941, immigrants in the country were required to register with the Republic of Panama to ensure the country and the U.S. were able to identify foreign persons. In Chiriqui Province, a group of religious Swiss-German settlers in the Cotito Colony was ordered by the Panamanian government to travel to David, the provincial capital, to register. The group failed to comply with the order, so on 7 July 1941, the Panamanian National Police (PNP) traveled to Cotito Colony to escort the group to David. Upon arrival, the PNP spoke with the group’s leader, Karl Lehner, who refused the order to register explaining the sect did not recognize any government or authority except that of their religion. As tensions rose between the PNP and the religious sect, shots were fired—twelve settlers were killed and another eight wounded.
The CIP was asked to investigate the case, later dubbed the Cotito Massacre, for signs of subversion and to ensure the group had no intention of staging a coup. Initial PNP reports claimed Lehner fired at the police first, hitting probationary officer Lucas Garcés in the face. However, the CIP investigation revealed that, while the sect had two shotguns in their possession, neither had been fired. Instead, Garcés had either been hit by a fellow officer or had accidentally discharged his own weapon. The CIP found no indication of subversive activity within the religious sect and no evidence to suggest they were trying to hide their nationality or loyalties within their refusal to register with the authorities. Consequently, the case was closed.
In 1944, the CIP (later known as the Counter Intelligence Corps [CIC]) detachment was formally constituted as the 470th CIC Detachment and served in Panama through the 1990s.
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2022 18:45 |
| Story ID: | 424464 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 126 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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