Distraught relatives of fishermen who disappeared in Panama Oeste

They have been waiting two months and 10 days for the response of the judicial authorities

Relatives of two fishermen who have been missing for two months and 10 days are desperate and uncertain, since the authorities in charge of conducting the investigations have not told them anything so far.

Fishermen Ernesto Eliécer Gaitán Santamaría, 19 years old, and Melvin Maradiaga, 42 years old, disappeared on November 17, 2021, and since then their relatives have not heard of their whereabouts.

Santamaría and Maradiaga were starting work on Playa Las Cruces, in the town of Cermeño de Capira, where they had built a structure to process fish for sale, when they mysteriously disappeared.

Later, the boat in which they were traveling was found semi-sunken off the coast of Playa Leona in La Chorrera.

Staff from the Public Ministry began investigations into the case, but the next day the boat disappeared again. The relatives of the fishermen cannot find an explanation as to why, if the boat was found, the authorities did not rescue it to have it as evidence.

On December 11, the body of a man in an advanced state of decomposition and skeletal remains was found in the Sajalices mangrove swamp in Chame.

The discovery occurred when a resident of the mentioned sector that is dedicated to coal activity, located the body and called the Police.

The corpse still had its clothes on and was tied up in the mangrove.

Await results

Family members of the missing fishermen await the results of DNA tests, to see if they are compatible with their relatives.

Santamaría's mother had DNA samples taken, but in today's sun she still has no answer.

She asked authorities to expedite investigations.

DNA samples were also taken from Melvin Maradiaga's 8-year-old daughter, to see if it was compatible with one of the remains found.

Samples

On January 21, 2022, the prosecutor's office showed Maradiaga's wife some photos of the clothes found in the mangrove.

The woman claimed that those clothes were Melvin's.

Lissette Maradiaga, Melvin's sister, who lives in Costa Rica, said that they are from Playa Padre Ramos in Jiquilillo, Chinandega department in Nicaragua.

He said that they come from a very humble and hard-working family and that his brother has always dedicated himself to artisanal fishing both in Nicaragua and Panama. When questioned about the slowness of the investigations, Lissette considered that they have taken a long time to give the results of the DNA tests and the investigations to clarify this case.

It has been learned that the Public Ministry began an investigation of a woman and a man for the crimes of deprivation of liberty, but the suspects are not detained, since they paid financial bail and that they are not unrelated to the case.

The fishermen disappeared on November 17, 2021 at Las Cruces beach in Capira