Saints, sinners and red devils

By David Young
EVEN IN THE anteroom for final execution, Panama’s Diablos Rojos (red devils) continue to attract attention, celebrities, and even occasional sympathy.
For decades they thundered through Panama city streets belching diesel smoke and indulging in chariot races, occasionally exacting a fatal toll on passengers or pedestrians. When the Metro Bus service was introduced, most of the used and outdated US school buses were sent to penultimate resting place in Howard the former American air force base, now known as Panama Pacifico.
There, on a 15 hectare site, they await removal to the wrecker’s yard where they will be crunched into re-usable blocks of metal. Meanwhile their former owners have allayed their grief with a $25,000 per vehicle government payout.
While few regret the disappearance of the noise, pollution, and often crazy driving as buses raced each other to pick up passengers, tourists and others with a nostalgic twist miss the gaudy decorations and reproductions on rear doors of saints and pop idols (standing in for sinners), sports personalities and political heroes like Che Guevara.
When the graveyard opened, Newsroom readers came up with multiple suggestions for using some of the best examples of Panamanian bus art from occasional roadside snack bars, to joining a string of buses together to form the Restaurante Diablos Rojos at the Fishing and Yacht Club on the Cinta Costera, or creating a portrait gallery of some of the saints and sinners. A tongue in cheek idea for a diablo rojo demolition derby might have worked. The organizers wouldn’t have had to look far for qualified smash-and-bash drivers. https://www.newsroompanama.com/component/search/?searchword=ralston&ordering=&searchphrase=all#content
Sadly none of the ideas seem to have been adopted. Instead the elephant’s graveyard has become a tourist site/sight (take your pick) for those seeking to capture the last remnants of a soon to be totally bygone era.
For young Panamanians and their families celebrating quinceanos it has become a photo location and the site of scenes in a television show featuring Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson,
For some scavengers looking for spare parts or metal to sell to local scrap merchants, it has become a happy hunting ground; for “some” but not all. So far there have been 25 arrests for pilfering.
There are still a few diablos rojos entering the city from the Interior. Better keep your camera ready as the last round up is ahead.