{"id":502036,"date":"2026-03-11T23:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/panama-reports-375-missing-persons-so-far-this-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:40:29","slug":"panama-reports-375-missing-persons-so-far-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/panama-reports-375-missing-persons-so-far-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama reports 375 missing persons so far this year"},"content":{"rendered":"Panama<\/strong>.- Where do the missing go?<\/strong> The chorus of the song by Panamanian singer-songwriter Rub\u00e9n Blades<\/strong> resonates in the country upon learning that in what has been of the year 375 people are missing, of which 103 are adult men.\n\nThe figures up to November of last year reflect that more than 1,300 disappearances occurred in the isthmus, with more than 90% of the cases resolved, according to the authorities.\n\nSome cases involve parallel investigations in the homicide prosecutor’s office, as the inquiries reveal the possible link with processes opened with other crimes, indicated prosecutor Gustavo Barrag\u00e1n, in statements to the television station TVN.\n\nIn May 2025, the government enacted Law 469, which introduced improvements to the existing standard, obliging the Amber Alert system to have a website, social media accounts, and a mobile application so that people receive activation and deactivation notifications on their mobile phones regarding missing persons.\n\nThe Amber Alert must be activated from the moment the assumptions of loss, abduction, disappearance or unknown whereabouts of a minor who has been reported occur, and the alert dissemination period cannot be less than 5 hours or more than 24 hours.\n\nExceptionally, it is established that if it is necessary to extend beyond 24 hours, a new alert must be issued, including additional information about the case. The dissemination can be local, national, or international.\n\n\n
You can also read: Panama surpassed 822 dengue infections<\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\nRegarding minors, in Panama, one of the most emblematic cases of unexplained absence is that of the girl M\u00f3nica Serrano Garc\u00eda, which occurred on February 8, 2003.\n\nThe little girl, who at the time of the event was one year and six months old, mysteriously disappeared while playing in the yard of her home located in Vista Alegre de Arraij\u00e1n, about 20 minutes from the capital city.\n\nFor this case, the Public Ministry detained 10 people for questioning, but no conclusion was ever reached, while the theory circulated that the girl may have been sold, although there was also no evidence of this.\n\nThe journalistic reports of the time indicate that on several occasions hopeful reports were given, as in 2009 when it was learned of a girl in Ecuador who could be M\u00f3nica, but DNA tests ruled out that possibility.\n\nIn 2020, it was once again learned that a young resident of the Guna region of Wagard\u00ed, named Grifina L\u00f3pez, bore a notable resemblance to M\u00f3nica, although once again genetic analyses dashed this hope.\n\nAnother case of a missing minor that impacted Panamanian society is that of Aderlyn Llerena Salda\u00f1a, who at the age of 9 was last seen shortly<\/a> before noon on September 13, 2022, while on her way to a school, located in the district of San Miguelito.\n\nUnlike the case of M\u00f3nica Serrano Garc\u00eda, where there were no convicted individuals, in Aderlyn’s case, Samuel Hudson was found guilty of the crimes of deprivation of liberty and abduction of minors.\n\nThe girls disappeared as if by magic, and although the Public Ministry carried out the necessary investigations, no hypothesis bore fruit to find their whereabouts.\n\nFaced with the lack of effective responses to the community, the Attorney General’s Office created in 2025 the Specialized Unit for Missing Persons, whose main function is to investigate cases of missing persons more effectively.\n\nWith this unit, the aim is to guarantee coordination between Prosecutor’s Offices, Security agencies, and other institutions, in order to provide comprehensive care to victims and their families.\n\nAmong its main functions are supporting the Prosecutor’s Offices that handle investigations related to disappearances, coordinating with national and international organizations involved in search and identification processes, as well as systematizing the information of each case to improve response times and avoid underreporting.\n\nOther relevant functions that it develops, states a press release from the Attorney General’s Office, is the implementation of good practices in the handling of evidence and search procedures, as well as offering specialized support to affected families, in addition to having a key role in high-impact cases, prolonged disappearances, minors and situations that require complex forensic expertise.\n\nSource: INFOBAE<\/strong>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panama.- Where do the missing go? The chorus of the song by Panamanian singer-songwriter Rub\u00e9n Blades resonates in the country upon learning that in what has been of the year 375 people are missing, of which 103 are adult men. The figures up to November of last year reflect that more than 1,300 disappearances occurred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133543,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[42717,39769,14665],"class_list":["post-502036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-international","tag-42717","tag-missing-persons","tag-panama"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-26Bm","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Carolina \u00c1lvarez","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-26-at-5.31.57-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}