Chepo

Chepo lies east of Panama City near the Mamoní and Bayano rivers, whose waters reach the Pacific. Its name is associated with an Indigenous chief encountered by Spanish explorers in the early sixteenth century. The surrounding lowlands and forested hills became a refuge for people escaping slavery as well as a frontier of colonial settlement.

In the 1550s the maroon leader Bayano resisted Spanish forces in the country around Chepo. His followers established a fortified community in the forest, from which they challenged colonial authority. Chepo itself was moved more than once during the colonial era, with attacks by pirates among the dangers remembered in local accounts. In 1736 Bishop Pedro Rubio y Auñón described a populous settlement whose inhabitants included people of African descent.