Gunshots ring out frequently as the two main maras (gangs) in Puerto El Triunfo battle over turf on which they can engage in petty extortions. One day in 2016 a group of mareros approached Ovidio Granadeño, 72-year-old former Sindicato de la Industria Pesquera (SIP) activist turned baker. They demanded that he start paying “la renta” or face serious consequences. He responded, “Look guys, you know I spent a lot of years dealing with death squads and the National Guard. So, now I’m just going to go about my business.”1 Perhaps the old man’s response stirred a sense of respect or bafflement, but regardless they didn’t demand “renta” again. He already pays a different kind of “renta” in the exploitative hours he labors to barely break-even; he works from 4 AM until 2 PM six days a week. Yet, Ovidio’s story is one of the precious few bright spots in the bleak panorama of tropical deindustrialization that envelops the port.