Hugo Spadafora

Hugo Spadafora Franco (September 6, 1940 – September 13, 1985) was a Panamanian physician and guerrilla fighter in Guinea-Bissau and Nicaragua. He served as a combat medic with the independence guerrilla of Guinea-Bissau during the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence.

Concerned about the increased Soviet and Cuban influence in the Sandinista regime of Nicaragua and the delay of free elections, Spadafora joined the Sandino Revolutionary Front (FRS) alongside Edén Pastora ("Comandante Cero"), hero of the August 1978 seizure of the National Palace in Nicaragua. The rise of Manuel Noriega as authoritarian ruler of Panama compelled Spadafora to denounce Noriega's protection of drug trafficking. Spadafora was detained by Noriega's forces when entering Panama from Costa Rica in September 1985, and his decapitated body was later found stuffed in a post office bag. His head was never found.