Heavy police presence at 5-year-olds funeral

UNDER HEAVY  police security, family, friends and acquaintances attended the funeral  of five year old Maricel Castillo Martinez on Saturday June 11.

She was the latest victim of  increasing Chiriqui gang warfare.

Motorized lynxes, (armed motor-cycle cops armed with automatic rifles) police on foot and even covert investigative units, were on hand for the service in the packed Lomas Adventist Church and for the funeral that followed in the Las Lomas cemetery.

Maricel was killed  inside a car in David, Chiriqui  on Thursday, June 9 when allegedly members of the band Los Carne Frita, tried to kill her father  Javier Martinez Caballero  recently released from prison.

He was wounded and hospitalized, but his daughter died in a hail of bullets, fired from another vehicle. His wife, who was later visited by President Juan Carlos Varela, was uninjured.

Chiriqui has been the scene of multiple killings and rising violent  crime rates including home invasions with retirees as victims  during the  last year.

Varela at a press conference held the day  after the death of the young girl, promised increased police support for the region.