Welcome to the Panama Weekly News Roundup! Here’s the latest.
Triple WBA World Title Rumble in “KO To Drugs” Festival in Panama.
Three WBA world title fights are featured in this year’s “WBA KO to Drugs” festival, the association’s annual boxing show aimed at entertaining fight fans while keeping drugs away from sports and society.
During the event’s presentation presser, the WBA President Gilberto Jesús Mendoza confirmed that the much awaited world title card will take place Friday, February 7, at the Roberto Duran Arena here in Panama City, Panama.
In one of the hot title clashes, Panamanian slugger former flyweight world champion Luis “Nica” Concepcion (39-8, 27 KO’s) collides against Venezuelan WBA # 4 Rober Barrera (23-2, 13 KO’s) for the vacant WBA interim Flyweight World Strap. The victorious could face the winner of the WBA title match between Artem Dalakian vs Josber Perez, unfolding February 8 in Ukraine.
Source: Boxing Scene
ASurvivor recounts confused, chaotic cult rite that killed 7 in Panama.
A survivor of the cult ceremony that killed her daughter and six other people in a remote village in Panama says she was ordered to close her eyes, was beaten and knocked unconscious during the ritual.
The account Monday by Dina Blanco suggests the 14 surviving participants were helpless, bound, unconscious or sightless much of the time.
So the truth about what happened in the bizarre ceremony may only come out at the trials of the nine villagers charged with killing their neighbors in the hamlet of El Terrón last week.
Source: NBC News
Panama begins exhumation of victims from 1989 US invasion.
Forensic workers took preliminary steps Monday for digging up the remains of some victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, an effort that has lifted the hopes of Panamanians who had relatives die or disappear and have lived with unanswered questions about their fate for 30 years.
Authorities gave the approval for exhumation of the 19 bodies buried in a Panama City cemetery after a truth commission set up three years ago documented about 20 disappearances from the U.S. military action to topple strongman Manuel Noriega.
Prosecutor Maribel Caballero told reporters the remains will be compared to a database of DNA from relatives in 14 cases.
Source: Seattle Times
The American Trade Hotel: A Panama Landmark.
The American Trade Hotel in Casco Viejo (Panama’s old city) is one of the most coveted pieces of real estate in the country. Set in the historic center of the city, this 101-year-old restored building has hosted some of the country’s most distinguished guests, and continues to set the bar as high as it gets when it comes to boutique luxury.
One of the biggest treats of staying in the American trade hotel is its location and surrounding neighborhood. Panama’s Casco Viejo, or what’s commonly referred to as simply “Casco”, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the most picturesque, fun, historic areas of the country. Right in front of the hotel, and in back, is living history that you can easily explore by foot at nearly anytime of the day or evening.
