Panama’s murder rampage surges to 105 in two months

Forty-one murders in Panama in the first four weeks of  February brought the killing rampage this year to 105 up from 50 in the same period lin 2019.

The assassinations were mostly gang-related but  media reports highlight numerous  collateral deaths

This month the dismembered   body of  14-year- Hernán Ábrego  was found in a ravine in the community of Villa del Carmen in the district of La Chorrera

According to an official source, the boy was suffocated and was stabbed several times in the back.

El Siglo reported the death of Norma Lezcano, 36  shot in the head while going to get water from a neighbor. When assassins arrived to kill a 19-year-old  Cilon gang member,

In  El ChorrJlo. Jean Carlos Saldaña, 18. was in his apartment in at the time shooting in the street below. When he leaned out of the window took place. a bullet hit him right in the head.

The largest  number of homicides were executions like that of Nadir de Jesús Contreras, 35, who was gunned down  at the Santo Tomás stop in Calidonia when he was returning  from  the maternity ward after visiting his newborn son

A double homicide in Juan Díaz followed of quarrels between criminal gangs killed Luis Alfredo Díaz aka ‘Pirulín’ and Adan Alexander Russel García who were shot by men  on a motorcycle  and killed while riding in a taxi

Criminologist Marcos Álvarez said that the criminal statistics on murders in January and February 2020, is a very powerful indicator of the level of violence that has increased in the country.