After a U.S. citizen is beaten along with a Cuban dissident in Panama, State Dept. tweets that it is 'concerned

The State Department on Thursday put out a tweet — but no formal statement — that said it's "deeply concerned" about an episode Wednesday in which at least a few U.S. citizens and Cuban dissidents were beaten in Panama City, Panama, apparently by agents of the Castro regime in Cuba.

Orlando Gutierrez, an American, and Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez, a Cuban dissident known as Antúnez, were beaten after participating in a pro-democracy event in Panama, just a day before the Summit of the Americas was set to start. President Barack Obama will be in Panama starting Thursday for the summit.

Antúnez was a guest of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) at this year's State of the Union address.

A video shows the two men and others being attacked as they tried to leave the scene in a vehicle:

As of late Thursday morning, the State Department's only response was a quick tweet sent out by Acting spokeswoman Marie Harf. But that tweet didn't mention anyone by name, or the fact that a few U.S. citizens were involved.

.@marieharf: We are deeply concerned by reports of attacks targeting civil society representatives in #Panama for Summit of the Americas.

— Department of State (@StateDept) April 9, 2015

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) issued a statement Wednesday condemning the attack, and reiterated her opposition to the attack by "Castro regime thugs" again on Thursday:

I condemn the brutal attacks against Cubans + Americans in #Panama by #Castro regime thugs. @PeteKTheBlaze @theblaze https://t.co/IAwGdYE8ev

— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) April 9, 2015