Fantastic tale of an anti Torrijos mercenary

I have heard bits and pieces of this story before. The story of a US mercenary who was hired to destablize the government of Omar Torrijos in Panama in 1979. Panama News covers this in An ex-political prisoner’s tale where he tells his story in much detail including how he was imprisoned and tortured by Noriega.

However, before that could happen, on the afternoon of October 11, 1979, soldiers came crashing through the door of the house near Concepcion where Bleming and another foreign volunteer, Cuban-American Wilfredo Bermúdez, were staying. “I was awakened from a deep sleep and ordered to put my hands up, not to make any sudden moves,” Bleming said in an affidavit written years later. “I did as I was ordered and was hit numerous times in the back and stomach by rifle butts…. My friend Wilfredo Bermúdez was near me and was beaten severely in the back and neck with the butt end of a pistol even though he had surrendered, putting his hands on the top of his head.”

Panamanian news paper also has coverage in Spanish in Un testimonio controversial.