Vandals damaged historic square

Thieves seem to have a fixation with national monuments, especially those made of metal.

In a space of a month they managed to steal the bronze statues of “Juegos de Antaño” from Parque Omar and the plumbing of the Jose Remon Cantera fountain, located near the National Assembly.

The statues from Juegos de Antaño cannot be replaced, but luckily the plumbing of the fountain will be back in the next week, courtesy of the Ornament Department of the Mayor’s Office.

The Jose Remon Cantera fountain was vandalized by unknown individuals a few weeks ago. They destroyed lights and removed most of the metal plumbing that carried water to the pool.

The fountain is a tourist spot and very popular with visitors from around the world on their way to visit the National Assembly.

Mabelle González, deputy manager of the Ornament Department said that it is very important for citizens to take care of the parks, gardens and green spaces because they are the ones that present a goodappearance to the capital city.

In 2003 the Legislative Park, as it was formerly known, was included in the list of parks and historic squares that the Mayor’s Office restored as part of the Republic’s Centenary celebrations.

The Panama’s district municipality periodically gives maintenance to green areas, parks and square, but that is not enough because of the amount of rubbish is deposited in them and vandals, who travel the length of the city stealing anything that is metal, especially bronze, iron and copper pipes and even propane tanks from houses.

They sell the metal to foundries and other establishments that pay without asking questions.. The consequences of this illegal trade are manholes without covers, fountains without plumbing and desecrated monuments. Although there is a certain amount of security at the Remon Cantera Square and it is located in a very busy area, nobody could identify the culprits.

The rehabilitation of the Jose Remon Cantera square cost $175,000 and since then has become an essential part of Central Avenue. The square and fountain has always been the meeting place.