Senior official is shot dead by hitman in Panama

Agustín Lara Díaz, deputy director of the Public Registry of Panama (RP), was shot dead this Sunday by a hitman who attacked him while he was participating in a party activity, local media reported.

Lara Díaz, leader of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was killed when he attended a party registration event for this political group that took place in a sector called Los Andes in the district of San Miguelito, on the outskirts of the capital.

The politician was surprised by a hitman who was transported on a motorcycle, according to the local tabloid Crítica, which cites witnesses who claim to have heard at least eight shots.

The deputy director of the RP fell badly injured to the pavement and was immediately transferred to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, but due to the severity of the injuries, he did not survive the attack, the newspaper said.

John Dornheim, director of the National Police (PN), told reporters that with the Public Ministry (MP) investigations are beginning to “determine the motive for the murder.”

Dornheim indicated that at the place where the incident took place, “two citizens arrived, one of them, who is reporting, goes towards the victim and makes several detonations.”

The police chief added that they will meet with the MP to coordinate the investigations into this crime, and that the intelligence, anti-drug and judicial investigation directorates will participate in the investigations.

The first reactions to this event were from co-supporters of Lara Díaz, including former presidential candidates Balbina Herrera and Juan Carlos Navarro.

“They took the life of a son of Los Andes 2, a professional from San Miguelito, Agustín Lara … I can’t believe it,” Herrera said on his social networks.

“Country in anarchy: murders and crimes of high government officials on the order of the day,” Navarro stated forcefully on his Twitter account.

Navarro, former mayor of Panama City, remarked: “It is urgent to investigate this crime to the last consequences and to put a heavy hand on the murderers, as part of a comprehensive security plan that restores peace and tranquility to us.”

“We regret and condemn the murder of Agustín Lara in San Miguelito today. Our condolences to his family. Enough of being tolerant of the infiltration of organized crime in politics,” the PRD secretary general said on his Twitter. , Pedro Miguel González.

In Panama there is an increase in homicides, which until last September totaled 410, with 26 more than in the same period of 2020, according to figures from the Prosecutor’s Office.

On October 29, five people were killed in a shooting at a nightclub in the capital, in an unprecedented event that the authorities attributed to a “gang war.”

The bodies of three people, bound and allegedly executed, were also found on a road on the outskirts of the capital.

That weekend, the American businessman, Randall Leigh Stettmeir Tilly, owner of a fumigation company, and his pilot, Armando Eliécer Miranda Pittí, who were allegedly kidnapped since last October and for whom they asked for a reward of more than $ 200,000, were murdered. , according to research.

As a result of this fact, the US embassy in Panama urged its citizens to exercise greater “caution due to crime”, given an increase in homicides. (I)