Family urges intensified search for young man missing after shipwreck near Garachiné

The family of 20-year-old Juan Alexis Ramírez is urgently appealing to Panamanian authorities to escalate their search efforts, as he remains missing six days after the boat he was traveling in capsized near Garachiné.

Ramírez disappeared after the vessel, carrying him and three other young men, overturned in rough seas off the coast of Darién province. While three of the occupants were located, Juan Alexis has not been found. His mother, Claudia, last spoke to him on Saturday morning, receiving the devastating news of the shipwreck the following day.

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I need you all to help me, all the authorities, help me, because I am desperate, because I have no news of my son.

"I need you all to help me, all the authorities, help me, because I am desperate, because I have no news of my son," Claudia expressed, her voice filled with anguish. According to a survivor's account, the boat began to sink after breaking apart. In the ensuing panic, a thermal bag was thrown to Juan Alexis, but he was lost from sight amidst the chaos.

The family has filed reports with the National Aeronaval Service and the Public Ministry. They express frustration with the initial response, noting that the Aeronaval service initially indicated they were not searching because they believed all occupants had been found. Despite support from some fishing boats and personal searches by relatives, the family lacks precise information on his whereabouts or the scope of official operations, clinging to the hope that he may have survived or been rescued.

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They what they did was throw him like a thermal bag, he hugged it and, in the shouting, the desperation, when they saw, it was like he got lost from them and he hasn't appeared to this day.