Sergeant Zak Hernandez, 22-year old U.S. Army South  soldier from Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, was murdered and another soldier seriously wounded by an ambush shooting at the HMVEE ("hummer") vehicle Hernandez was driving on the Trans-isthmian Highway (between Colon and Panama City) about noon June 10, 1992, the day before President George Bush's visit to Panama. A 12-year old Panamanian boy on the side of the road was also injured by the shooting conducted by three men from another automobile near the Chilibre River bridge.

Based on witness account, Panamanian authorities issued arrest warrants for Pedro Miguel Gonzalez and two other Panamanian men as prime suspects. A U.S. grand jury in Washington, D.C. opened a criminal case (No. 920397) against Pedro Miguel Gonzalez and Roberto Garrido, according to press accounts (including El Panama America, 12 Feb 1995, and 21 Nov 1997). The U.S. Department of State, which considered the shooting an act of terrorism, offered a reward of up to $100,000 for the apprehension and conviction of those involved in the incident. Pedro Miguel Gonzales, son of the Gerardo Gonzalez (then president of the National Assembly and a founder of the Democratic Revolutionary Party-PRD), turned himself in to Panamanian authorities January 26, 1995 at the Presidential Palace after Ernesto Perez Balladares, of the same party, became president of Panama in September 1994. (That event was widely covered by Panamanian news media.)

In November 1997 (still during President Perez Balladares administration), a Panamanian jury of government employees acquitted Gonzalez and the other two defendants of the charges and Gonzalez was freed. (One of the other two defendants still had to serve a seven-year prison term for a prior murder conviction and the other one had not been located.) The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Ambassador to Panama at that time William Hughes maintained Gonzalez was acquitted despite clear evidence of his guilt and in the wake of improper actions by his father in this case and in a separate case against then director of the Panama Technical Judicial Police, Jaime Abad. Gonzalez's trial was subject to political interference, manipulation, and intimidation of the judge and jury, according to the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Department of State (as noted in the Department of State's Panama Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997, January 30, 1998, and summarized in the same report for 1998 published in 1999)  While his father was not reelected in 1999, Pedro Miguel Gonzalez won his first bid for legislator in the National Assembly in the same elections (representing the province of Veraguas, like his father) and was reelected in 2004 (which insured immunity while holding that position).  

In May 2004, then U.S. Ambassador to Panama Linda Watt dedicated Building 520 at Clayton (formerly Fort Clayton until late 1999) as Clayton Building shortly after the U.S. Consulate moved there from downtown Panama City (a temporary move until the American Embassy is built at another location at Clayton, scheduled to be completed in 2007).  Located in the entrance lobby of the building is a plaque in commemoration of Sergeant Zak Hernandez, a point not missed by the Panamanian news media attending the ceremony.

On September 1, 2007, Gonzalez was chosen by his PRD colleagues plus a few votes by opposition deputies in the National Assembly to head the legislature for its 2007-2008 session.  As noted by The Panama News, in secret balloting at the assembly's September 1 organizational meeting, he received 50 of the 76 votes cast by the 78 legislators -- including at least a half-dozen votes from opposition deputies.  This selection has generated considerable local news media coverage, swift reaction from the U.S. Government (including a Department of State press release), and a firestorm in Panama.  

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