Member Of Panama’s National Soccer Team Shot And Killed In Colon; 2nd In 6 Years

(COLON, Panama) – Police and witnesses said Monday that Gilberto Hernández, a member of Panama’s national football team, was hanging out with friends in front of the building where his mother lives when gunmen in a taxi opened fire, killing him and wounded seven others in the country’s notorious port city of Colon.

Hernández, a 26-year-old defender, was the second national team member to be assassinated in Colon in the last six years. Authorities announced the arrest of one suspect in the Sunday killing on Monday.

Colon is 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Panama City, where ships transit the Panama Canal to reach or exit the Caribbean Sea.

“He was with childhood friends, and they were planning to go to the beach in the afternoon when the shooting happened,” said a worker at a neighboring restaurant who only supplied her first name, Rosa, out of fear of revenge. “We’re sad, and the whole street is in mourning.”

Monday afternoon, police were stationed at a church on a nearby corner. Authorities captured one suspect in a raid on an apartment complex in Colon early Monday. The culprit was not named, and no reason was given.

According to government data, the Colon province of Panama, which has a population of around 300,000, had 102 killings last year, nine fewer than the previous year. Authorities attribute much of the violence to drug trafficking rivalry.

Historically, the province has seen significant unemployment and poverty levels. According to residents, gunshots like the one that murdered Hernández have grown commonplace.

Colon is 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Panama City, where ships transit the Panama Canal to reach or exit the Caribbean Sea.

“Right now, crime is at an all-time high,” said Antonio Smith, a 60-year-old local. “We need to do something like Bukele,” he remarked, referring to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who has imprisoned tens of thousands in an all-out assault on street gangs.

Smith stated that another gunfire occurred near the scene of the attack that murdered Hernández on Monday morning. “It happens on a daily basis.” “You haven’t even had your breakfast when you hear it,” he added of the shooting in the neighborhood.

Midfielder Amlcar Henriquez was killed in Colon province in 2017. He was a part of Panama’s national team, which qualified for the first time in its history for the 2018 World Cup.

Hernández was a member of Panama’s professional football league champions, Independent Athletic Club.

In March, Hernández represented his country in a friendly match against world champion Argentina. Panama was defeated 2-0 in Buenos Aires. Hernández and his colleagues then posed for photos with Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

The Panamanian Football Federation’s president, Manuel Arias, stated on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Hernández was “a professional player who today lost his life, sadly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He said it was an example of “the violence that shakes our society and which we must combat.”

SOURCE – (AP)