An alleged hitman sneaked in this Friday disguised as medical personnel in a hospital in Panama City and killer to a patient of Colombian nationality, who had been hospitalized for a week after suffering an attack.
The attack was confirmed on its social networks by the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office) of Panama, which indicated that it is carrying out investigations in the facilities of the Santo Tomás Hospital (HST) “where this afternoon a person of Colombian nationality was killed who “I was confined in the room.” “The victim was receiving medical attention for gunshot wounds inflicted in another incident, recorded last weekend on 76th Street San Francisco, when he was traveling in a van. In this same event, another person died,” the investigating entity stated in X.
The unidentified man “died as a result of gunshot wounds,” said a statement issued by the Santo Tomás Hospital. “No other victims have been recorded in the patient or collaborator ward of this hospital,” the statement added.
According to statistics from the Prosecutor’s Office, 19% of the 556 homicides recorded in the country in 2023 occurred in Colón and 18% in San Miguelito, which were positioned as the second and third most violent areas in the country, only surpassed by Panama. , which registered 38%.
The authorities maintain that 70% of murders in the country are linked to organized crimeincluding gangs, which are responsible for hiding the drugs that arrive from South America and moving them so that they leave for North America and Europe, as well as retailing them in the local market, according to official information. Until October 2024, 501 homicides have been recorded, according to the latest figures from the Panama Prosecutor’s Office.
Last October 10, the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino – who assumed his 5-year mandate on July 1, 2024 – launched a plan to “free” the country from gangs that put more than a thousand police officers on patrol. the streets checking “house by house or farm by farm” of the main dangerous areas. In Panama there are around 150 gangsalthough their way of acting and their aesthetics is very different from the Central American gangs, which are much larger, violent and identifiable by their tattoos.
