President Juan Carlos Varela’s 35-month government management has been characterized by the implementation of safety strategies that have not been effective.
The execution of programs that have been carried out over the course of Varela’s almost three-year mandate, such as Barrios Seguros (Safe Neighborhood), the Aguila joint task force (JTF) and them Operación Escudo (Shield Operation), among others, have not yielded the expected results.
These policies are not well seen by the citizens who perceive a lack of police officers’ presence on the streets and a loss of respect to the authority on the part of criminals, which has also been victim of criminals.
Thus, various sectors blamed the low effectiveness of these programs for the increase of insecurity, since it is not comprehensively attacking the basic problems.
In this sense, political analyst Cristóbal Silva believes that the insecurity has reached unbearable levels while the President continues to implement Safe Neighborhoods which has proven a total failure.
On this program, which began in July 2014, the Government is being accused of having signed an amnesty with gang members.
This project was carried out in the provinces of Panama, Panama Oeste, Colon, Cocle, Veraguas, Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro to benefit 127 groups of at-risk youth.
Million for gang members
Then the payment of monthly bonuses was budgeted, amounting to $50, for some 4,150 young people in conflict with the law, of whom fewer than half, 1,500, has completed the vocational courses and 600 of them got to work on projects with the Government, according to official figures.
Even in January 2016, $30 million was used to sponsor the construction of four centers destined to develop the Barrios Seguros program in Panama, Panama Oeste, Colon and Chiriquí.
However, several children involved in this program continued committing crimes, which resulted in the suspension of this strategy in provinces such as Colon, where some weeks ago, an 8 year-old girl was shot on her head by a subject who was handling a gun and was allegedly a member of Barrios Seguros.
After that incident, suddenly, the Minister of Public Safety, Alexis Bethancourt, announced that he had made the decision to cancel the program, alleging that gang members will be forced to change "by hook or by crook". Colon recorded 33 homicides in 2017.
This led authorities to rethink the security strategy in the Caribbean province for another one called the Quadrant Plan.
The implementation of the Quadrant Plan started in mid May as the new security strategy for Colon, which consists in dividing geographically by zones the police focus in the most conflictive areas.
However, these actions were described by various sectors to be part of the demagogy of the Government.
Among them, Vice-president of the Republic Arturo Vallarino, who lamented how "a few weeks ago, the Government’s spokesmen promised to get rid of drugs and crime in Colon, but killings have increased, as well as thefts".
Crime increase is recognized
Earlier this year, President Varela affirmed that he had managed to reduce the murder rate by 47%, from 17 to 9 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants.
However, at the beginning of June, Varela changed the speech to recognize that "there are security problems in Panama and in all countries of the world, which I am obliged to deal with", since "from January to May of 2017, there was a trend of more than 15 killings (per 100 thousand inhabitants). We are above last year’s numbers on the issue of homicides and robberies", he revealed.
This situation forced the President to seek new strategies to try to correct this problem, and the most recent one has been through a decree to lower the stay time of tourists, which according to experts, will not solve insecurity.
This measure stemmed from the fact that many foreigners have steadily been found to be involved in murders, robberies and kidnappings even in areas like Punta Pacifica and 50th Street, and Howard.
This would lead to the proposal of new security strategies even with the collaboration of the United States, after the President’s recent visit to the northern country.
However, sectors of society have rejected that a center of intelligence be set up that could take the form of a US military base in Panama, under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
While the Government keeps announcing plans and strategies, the different sectors of Panamanian society consider that the daily levels of insecurity are higher, which is worrying.
Even after the latest polls and surveys, the population raises that insecurity is the main problem affecting the country.
