The killing of a member of Panama’s national soccer team within the rough Caribbean city of Colon has focused a light-weight on the high levels of violence residents suffer here despite having a bustling port and one in all the world’s largest free-trade zones.
While massive cargo ships enter and exit the Panama Canal here 50 miles north of the capital, Colon has wrestled for years with high levels of unemployment and crime. It has develop into fertile ground for gangs battling over control of drug trafficking routes.
“The gang war is costing innocent lives,” said Rafael Cañas, an evangelical pastor who can be town of Colon’s director of citizen security. “There are a whole lot of hitmen too due to the lack of jobs and opportunities.”
Defender Gilberto Hernández, 26, was shot Sunday afternoon while hanging out with friends in front of the apartment constructing where his mother lives beside a Catholic church. Gunmen riding in a taxi opened fire on the group, killing Hernández and wounding seven others.
Police arrested a suspect early Monday, but haven’t spoken of a possible motive.
A day after the killing, a personal security guard was killed and one other wounded in an attempted robbery in one other a part of the province of the identical name.
“The lack of opportunities and abandonment by the federal government push many young people to go away school and join gangs,” said Cañas, who also works with gang members to attempt to get them to go away a lifetime of crime.
In a dilapidated constructing near where the shooting took place, 60-year-old Antonio Smith sat in a wheelchair. He said crime had reached unseen levels and noted that the morning after Hernández was killed he heard more shots fired nearby, but nobody died.
“That’s why you see the police there,” he said. ““It’s a every day occurrence. You haven’t even had your breakfast once you hear it.”
The problems in Colon have been persistent despite the billions of dollars in global trade that glide by it every year through the canal. Many of the employees within the free-trade zone commute from Panama City.
The city center is stuffed with ramshackle wood buildings. Sewage runs within the streets and garbage rots in fetid piles. A downpour Monday filled the streets with water. By late afternoon, town’s primary street had emptied as employees rushed from their jobs to get home before dark. There was a notably stronger police presence than usual.
Unemployment within the province of about 300,000 people is around 30%, in accordance with social researcher Gilberto Toro, who has studied gangs in Colon. The government and business sector put it about half that, which might still be well above the national average of 9%. Toro said the discrepancy is because the federal government includes informal employment. More than 50% of Colon residents live in poverty, Toro said.
There have been attempts made to steer youth away from the gangs. The government offered $50 a month to those that left their gangs, but many continued committing crimes and it wasn’t enough to show the situation around.
In 2017, Colon registered 70 homicides, a record on the time. Among them that yr was Amílcar Henríquez, one other member of the national soccer team on the time. Last yr, there have been 102 homicides, down from 111 in 2021. So far this yr, there have been 60.
Hernández’s killing hit hard in Colon and across Panama.
Hernández played for the Independent Athletic Club, the reigning champion of Panama’s skilled league.
He had been called as much as the national team in March for a friendly match against world champion Argentina in Buenos Aires. Argentina won 2-0, with star Lionel Messi scoring on a penalty, but various Panamanian players, including Hernández, took photos with the Argentine star that they posted on social media.
“He was a laid back guy who played soccer with the children and who not way back showed us an image from his trip to Argentina and one other that he took with Lionel Messi,” said a resident of the realm, who gave her name only as Rosa for safety reasons. “It’s one other hard blow for we moms and the province.”
Carmen Solís, one other neighbor, remembered Hernández coming back to Colon after the Argentina trip too. “He visited us after that trip to indicate us photos. He was really completely satisfied,” she said. “Another great athlete with a future who died due to the damned bullets.”
