Posada, together with Gaspar Jiménez, Guillermo Novo and Pedro Remón were taken to the Panamanian Institute of Legal Medicine.

According to a report by Argentina Barrera Flores, a first circuit judge responsible for the case at the time, “they were informed of the decision and that it was compulsory.”

But in front of the Institute’s experts and legal representatives, Posada and his henchmen retorted that “they would in no way allow them to take those samples.”

They reiterated that “they would not allow the technician or any other person to touch them,” and then refused to sign a document attesting to the fact that they had refused to provide the samples.

Law No. 80 of the Republic of Panama, passed on November 23, 1998, establishes the compulsory nature of DNA testing and implicitly indicates that refusal to provide samples constitutes an admission of guilt.

For the Panamanian judicial system, there is no doubt that the explosives found after the arrest of Posada and his crew thanks to the cooperation of their Panamanian driver, entered the country at the Paso Canoa border point on November 16, 2000 in a bag carried by Gaspar Jiménez. There were no less than 33.44 kilos of military explosives…an amount that would clearly provoke a disaster.

To better understand what happened, we should recap on the chronology of the conspirators’ movements in those November days leading up to the Ibero-American Summit where they planned to assassinate the Cuban President and all those who would have been present at the university.

November 3 - Posada arrives in Panama from Costa Rica through the Paso Canoas border point, using a false passport - No. A143258 under the name of Franco Rodríguez Mena - a gift from his friends in El Salvador. (He had already used the same false document on a previous reconnaissance trip on August 12, 2000).

November 6 - At 10.28am, Posada appears at the Las Vegas hotel apartments in Panama where he rents Room 215. From there he contacts his buddy César Matamoros, a Cuban (with drug trafficking convictions) resident in the Panamanian capital who offers his employee José Manuel Hurtado as Posada’s driver.

Hurtado will go on to play a central role in events. This modest black worker that Matamoros uses as if he were his own property, will spontaneously cooperate with the judicial system in the first stage after the arrest of the conspirators, until his white boss and Posada’s mafioso advisors direct him otherwise.

November 8 - Hurtado sees Posada who says that he wishes to change hotels. Some 500 meters from the Las Vegas, they visit the Coral Suites hotel apartments where Posada reserves a room.

November 9 - Posada goes to Tocumen airport in the capital with Hurtado to collect his Cuban-Salvadoran friend Raúl Hamouzava (a fugitive from Panamanian justice since these events took place). At the Dollar Rent-A-Car agency, Posada and Hamouzova hire a red Mitsubishi Lancer with license plate 223 251, which Hurtado will drive.

November 14 - At five a.m. Posada leaves Panama City with Hurtado in the hired car and heads for the province of Chiriqui where his friend, drug trafficker José Valladares (“Pepe the Cuban”) has a ranch called Jacu, in a region bordering on Costa Rica and the neighboring Paso Canoas border post.

November 15 - Guillermo Novo arrives at Paso Canoas and presents himself to Panamanian immigration, carrying a valid U.S. passport No. 043788076.

November 16 - Posada and Novo collect Pedro Remón and Gaspar Jiménez at the same Panamanian immigration point. Hurtado puts both men’s luggage in the red Mitsubishi. Amongst the suitcases is one black bag bearing the logo of the Miami Marlins and The Miami Herald, in which three days later on November 19, the police will find the explosives in Panama City.

Jiménez crosses the border using a false U.S. passport (No. 044172940) in the name of Manuel Díaz, and Remón a valid U.S. passport (No. 084987631). Later, it will come to light that Jiménez had arrived in Costa Rica on the 13th, two days before crossing the border…

Remón for his part, arrives from Miami, after a badly explained one-day stay in Atlanta, Georgia where he allegedly took part in a trade seminar.

Important detail: before the judge, Remón explains that he had met his buddy Jiménez in San José’s Best Western Hotel in Costa Rica, so as to then travel with him by plane to Coto 47 airport on the border. According to the Attorney General’s report, Remón then explained that “for physiological reasons, he went into the undergrowth where he also used the opportunity to take out the GPS (Global Positioning System) that he was carrying and fix the geographical position of the location.” A strange action that remains to be explained.

That same day (16th), following a meeting at the Jacu ranch, Posada, Novo and Remón travel by plane on the Aeroperla airline from the city of David (Chiriqui) to Panama City.

Posada, author of the mid-flight explosion of a Cubana Aviation plane in 1976 that caused the deaths of 73 people, did not want to travel by plane with the explosives…He orders Jiménez to drive with Hurtado to the capital by road in the red Mitsubishi…with the black bag containing 33.44 kilos of military explosives in the trunk.

Before the judge, Jiménez will claim that he traveled by car for health reasons: “because it’s a small plane and could cause a blood clot.”

Posada and Remón arrive at Coral Suites in the afternoon and Jiménez at around 11:00 p.m. The first two are occupying Room 310 and Jiménez joins Novo in 509 (the most expensive in the hotel). Both rooms were reserved well in advance by Posada. On this night, Hurtado leaves the keys of the red Mitsubishi with Jiménez and goes home in a taxi.

November 17 - Jiménez and Novo go for a drive, passing close by the Cesar Park hotel - the venue of the Ibero-American Summit - and then around the grounds of the university where Fidel is due to address 1,500 people in the auditorium some hours later. They are with Hurtado, the driver, in another vehicle - a black Mitsubishi Lancer - that Novo has rented.

Remón provides another Mitsubishi rental; a Galant model that he is using with Posada.

Hours later, Posada will order Hurtado to take the red Mitsubishi to be cleaned with a view to returning it the following day. We should remember that it was in this car that the explosives were transported from the border.

According to Hurtado, he was only ordered to clean this car and not the others.

Around four in the afternoon, several Panamanian police agents who had been alerted by Fidel minutes before in a press conference of the presence of terrorists in the Coral Suites hotel apartments, surround the place under the orders of Roger Diez Quintero, chief of the Security Division of the Judicial Technical Police, and Inspector Ignacio Taylor.

They observe two individuals who, on seeing the police arrive, cross the road in a suspicious manner. It is Remón and Novo, who are stopped and then arrested by Detective Faustino Portugal.

Arriving at the car wash, driver Hurtado realizes - according to his later statement - “that Mr. Posada had left a case that he always carried with him on the back seat of the car.” Concerned about the strange contents, he calls his boss, Matamoros, who tells him “to give it to the Cubans”, referring to Posada and his companions.

Suspecting that he has been involved in a criminal act, Hurtado returns to the hotel apartments but sees the police presence at the moment when they are about to penetrate the entrance to Coral Suites with “the emergency lights flashing”, according to investigators. He then accelerates and is pursued by Inspector Taylor in a police vehicle, heading for nearby España Avenue where he disappears amongst the traffic.

Minutes later, Posada and his accomplices, all under arrest are questioned about the red Mitsubishi but affirm that they “know nothing about the car”, according to Taylor’s subsequent report.

November 19 - Located by detectives, Hurtado takes police captain Feliciano Benítez to a patch of waste ground close to Tocumen airport where they unearth the famous black bag with the Marlins logo containing the explosives, a device identified by explosive experts as a firing system, a remote control device and five “Marine Band” radios amongst other items.

The cartridges contained in the explosives bear the stamp “Costa Rica”.

Inside the bag they also find a white towel with black, yellow and chocolate-colored stains and another with chocolate and gray stains. A subsequent analysis by a criminal expert reveals that the towels were used on mixing the explosives.

The chemical test carried out by expert Eybar Castillo will reveal the presence of “human hairs”.

On December 6 and 7, 2000, barely three weeks after the suspects are arrested, the Attorney General summons them in order to receive their statements. However, the four detainees flatly refuse to testify on the events. They also refuse to undergo psychiatric and handwriting tests requested by the Attorney General.

It will be six months before they begin to talk, tell lies and once again demonstrate their total unwillingness to cooperate with justice.

They continue refusing to submit to the DNA test , despite the insistence and subsequent order by the judicial authorities. According to the Panamanian Attorney General’s report, Law 80 “anticipates a grave indication” against those guilty of such behavior.

The explanation is simple of course. Posada and his accomplices are terrified that this simple laboratory test would establish, beyond all doubt, that they are the owners of the black bag bearing The Miami Herald logo.