Football: Panama National Team Player Shot Dead

Panamanian international defender Gilberto Hernandez was shot dead by unknown assailants in the city of Colon, on the Caribbean coast of the country, the police announced on Monday. A suspect has been arrested.

The 26-year-old footballer was gunned down on Sunday by individuals who fired from a car, according to the police.

Several other people were injured in the incident in a city where settling scores among drug traffickers is not uncommon.

Gilberto Hernandez played for Club Atletico Independence, with whom he had won two national championships.

He had been called up twice by Panama’s coach, the Spanish-Danish Thomas Christiensen, notably against Argentina.

The police have «apprehended an individual» suspected to be involved in this murder, said Deputy Commissioner Hermogenes Argüelles, the head of the police in the Colon region, without providing further details.

The President of the Panamanian Soccer Federation, Manuel Arias, expressed his sorrow, stating that Hernandez had tragically found himself in an unfortunate situation.

Hernandez’s death marks the second instance of a Panama national team player being killed in Colón within the past six years. Last year, the city witnessed 102 homicides, and authorities attribute much of the violence to rivalries in the drug trafficking trade.

Steven K