Panamanians Speak out on Local Crime
During the last few weeks you have read a number of articles addressing the concerns of the expats regarding the increase in violent crimes in our beach communities. However, we all realize that the people in the expat community are not the only ones aware of this. It is time for us take a look at the increase in crime from the local Panamanian’s perspective: the workers, the housewives, the students, their families. Many of them have lived here most of their lives; and they, too, are concerned about how things have changed in recent years. During the last few days, I have had the opportunity to speak with some of the local Panamanian residents to see how the increase in crime is affecting them.
It is almost an understatement to say that the Chame area has grown substantially. There are numerous residential projects completed or underway; large shopping malls have been built and are to be built; and many foreigners, as well as Panamanians from other areas, have decided to settle here. One of the younger interviewees who has lived her whole life in the Bejuco area stated that the main thing that disturbs and concerns the Panamanians, as it does the expats, is the significant rise in crime. She cited that the thefts are increasing in frequency, and the criminals are becoming more violent. They are armed; they forcefully break into the houses and physically attack their occupants; they assault restaurants and their customers. She, herself, is now afraid to walk alone at night as she is fearful of being attacked. “It is not safe to be here alone at night in Chame.”
They all acknowledged that it is a well-known fact that there are many drugs on the street. A woman who lives in Las Lajas and has worked in Coronado as a maid for 30 years said that many people in the area know who the gang members and drug dealers are, but many of the residents do not complain because they are afraid of reprisals. She went on to say that people in the community have lost faith in the police because of the fact that most of the time the police know who the criminals are, but the local residents do not see a good response from the police.
The local Panamanians whom I interviewed feel that things are not going to change just because the police caught the gang members who, presumably, could also be involved in several other crimes which have been committed in the area. Many of them believe that there are more gangs. The Panamanian community is very familiar with how criminals are apprehended and then soon released. Minors, particularly, are released very quickly. And, according to a young housewife in Las Lajas, these criminals commit crimes again because Panamanian jails have turned into schools of crime.
Many of the Panamanians said that they would feel safer if there were more security here, particularly at night. People of the area demand more surveillance, more patrol, more lighting, more effective and speedy response to calls to police, more control in places like bars and clubs that are drug outlets. But many of the local people feel that this is not a problem that can be readily solved by just the local police; this is a problem for the whole Panamanian justice system. The minor drug sellers on the street are sometimes caught; however the white-collar dealers are all still free. The resounding opinion of the interviewees is that if stronger laws are not applied against the juvenile offenders who are the ones committing the crimes and if corruption inside the justice system is not halted, things will remain the same.
