War Against Crime is Coming

President Martinelli announced that an aggressive war against insecurity is on its way.

“With regards to the theme of security, we have faltered,” he went on to recognize. “But, believe me, I am going to resolve this.”

He catalogued the problem as an old one that comes from below and cannot be resolved by building a school or a road, or turning off a switch.  One impediment listed by Martinelli are incongruent laws that jail police officers for shooting criminals.

Martinelli’s war on crime could include imposing immigration restrictions on foreigners coming to Panama, La Critica reports.

Just this week, a 20-year-old died in the hospital after being shot four times;  a minor was arrested for shooting a 56-year-old woman in the left thigh in El Chorillo; a 19-year-old was shot five times on his way to work in San Miguelito; the Gonzalillo brothers were found well-armed with guns of various calibers and munitions; a woman was attacked by an indigenous psychiatric patient in Veraguas; a Chinese business man was beat up and robbed of $30,000 in front of a bank in Colon; a man was executed and left in a Chevrolet at the exit of the Southern Corridor; a minor was stabbed and stoned to death in Chiriqui; a 17-year-old pregnant minor was arrested with a .38 caliber revolver at a soccer match in San Miguelito, among other crimes committed.

According to an El Siglo special crime wave report, there have been 289 homicides in the last four months or 2.4 people every 24 hours.  This represents a 19% increase from the same period last year.  There were a total of 72 killings in April:  11 minors and 61 adults, with 30 of them committed in Panama City.  Sixty people or 83% were killed with firearms.  Most of them are gang related.