on May 15, 1903 at the Plaza Francia, a tall sea wall, on the side facing Amador. Panama separated from Colombia less than seven months later. Lorenzo is buried in the Amador Cemetery. The Panamanian public was greatly dismayed by Lorenzo's execution. Public disapproval at this execution resulted in this being the last recorded execution in Panama. It was a factor leading the Liberals to accept Panama’s separation from Colombia, and led to the disappearance of Conservatives from Panamanian politics for some years thereafter. Many indigenous people in Panama understand his assassination as the defeat of their autonomous land rights and access to representation in the Panamanian state structure. Legacy Lorenzo became a national legend in Panama. Today, several monuments and plaques exist in Cocle and Veraguas in Lorenzo's honor, and official events celebrating his life and remembering his execution are held both at the commemoration of his death and on the November 3 Separation Day. Panama's controversial figure Hugo Spadafora organized a contingent of his countrymen to fight against Nicaragua's Somoza regime in 1976 known as the Victoriano Lorenzo Brigade. On January 30, 1966, the Panamanian National Assembly formally declared his execution unjust. In 2003, Panama City's Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro (PRD) also issued a formal proclamation of Lorenzo's innocence. Carlos Francisco Chang Marín, the Panamanian poet and novelist alluded to Lorenzo in almost all his works in an effort to place him as a founding father of Panama. To Chang Marín, Lorenzo was the first true Panamanian whose life story and identity parallel that of Panama as a nation. References Further reading Carles, Rubén Darío. Victoriano Lorenzo: el guerrillero de la tierra de los cholos. Segunda edicion, R. de P., 1966. Collard, Patrick, et al. "Murales, figuras, fronteras. Narrativa e historia en el Caribe y Centroamérica." Anclajes 155 (2004): 355-397. García, B. P. "Mis memorias sobre el General Victoriano Lorenzo." Revista Cultural Lotería 470 (2007): 7-25. 1870s births 1903 deaths Panamanian politicians