Hotel Becomes Prison as Armed Men Take Hostages
PANAMA CITY — The luxurious Marriott Hotel became a prison today for guests and staff as armed paramilitary troops staged repeated raids, picking out Americans to serve as hostages and threatening to return for more.
Security at the seaside hotel was non-existent. After at least two raids in 12 hours by armed men who seized 15 people, there still was no obvious U.S. presence.
The fate of nine people taken from the hotel, including two American journalists, was not known.
Officials of the Marriott Corp. said they were pressing the U.S. government to ensure the safety of guests at the 400-room hotel. It was about 42% occupied when the first raid began at 12:30 a.m., half an hour after the United States launched an attack in a bid to capture Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Marriott spokesman Roger Conner said most of the guests were journalists and airline workers, along with a few business people. A hotel worker said the guests included 50 Americans.
During the first raid, men dressed in civilian clothes and carrying assault rifles herded about 80 hotel staff and guests into the lobby and forced them to lie face down on the floor with their hands on their heads.
A man in a black ski mask spotted three American journalists as he ran across the patio and ordered them to join the other guests.
Passports were confiscated, bags searched, and the men separated out 12 foreigners, including the three journalists and four other Americans.
“We’re being invaded, so we’re taking hostages,†said the man who appeared to be their leader.
The 12 were then driven to a private home near the hotel and held there for the next three to four hours as the sounds of battle echoed across the city. About 4 a.m., the hostages were put into two vans. One group of six was let out on the street. The other van disappeared.
About 9 a.m., armed men who said they were members of the dreaded “Dignity Battalion†returned to the hotel, this time leaving with three foreigners who were forced to lie face down in the back of a pickup truck.
They were identified as news producers Jon Meyersohn of CBS, Robert Campos of ABC, and the hotel’s resident manager, Daniel Sarria, who is Colombian.
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