Victoriano Lorenzo

Who was Victoriano Lorenzo?

Victoriano Lorenzo is considered one of the great heroes of Panamanian history, although his story and motives are sometimes debated by different sectors in his homeland. Born when the isthmus was still a part of Colombia, which was a part of the former Gran Colombia, Lorenzo died during the Thousand Days War shortly after which Panama gained its separation after many different attempts dating back to 1830.

Born sometime around the 1870s to poor campesinos in what is now the province of Cocle, Lorenzo was considered a Cholo, of predominantly indigenous blood with drops of Europe and Africa but with a more Hispanic cultural background.

An elected official outside of the provincial capital of Penonome, Lorenzo was quick to take arms at the advent of the Thousand Days War in alliance with the Liberals led in part by Panamanian patriot Belisario Porras. He led troops in a Pacific coast skirmish which killed a conservative mayor and garnered him arms from the Liberals. He commanded his troops into battle in Aguadulce in January 1902, in which over 750 troops were killed or wounded on both sides, and his Liberal allies claimed 700 prisoners. Later that year, when hundreds of Liberal troops came from Nicaragua, Lorenzo sent his secretary, Papi Aizpuru, to meet them.