The first cases of express kidnappings in Panama started coming up on news outlets around 2005, but who knows for how long they’ve been happening. Still, I believe it’s good to get the word out on accounts like these, so I’ve taken the liberty to translate the girl’s account for you to read.
The 3rd season of Latin American Idol ended Thursday night and in a barely surprising turn of events, Panamanian contestant Margarita Henriquez defeated Costa Rican Maria José Castillo thanks to the votes via chat messages from people in Panama and all of Latin America. Panama’s odds of winning were good from the start, with 3 Panamanians present out of the 10 finalists; Margarita has pipes and in the last three months she, surely with the help of vocal coaches and some of the most renowned Spanish-speaking performers in the world, has fine-tuned her instrument into a lethal weapon of song. She deserved to win the contest, and I’m glad that Latin America agreed with the notion. As black-and-white as Margarita’s indisputable win is though, what is truly fascinating is what she has managed to inspire in just a few short weeks simply by the raw power of her presence in LAI: Panama, as a whole, came together for a common goal in such a way that the I can only compare it to how a country deals with acts of war. In many ways (but by no means in the same scale), Margarita’s presence and win in Latin American Idol brought a country together in the same manner that 9/11 brought the U.S. to unity.