OPINION: A public transit timebomb

Hoyporhoy La Prensa  Oct. 23

ON OCTOBER 23 2006 what we all knew was confirmed: our public transportation was a time bomb about to explode.

Today, 10 years later, the families of the victims and survivors of the tragedy 8B-06 still have to face the indifference of the authorities, the little matter of regulators and neglect of the health system.

Now we have the Metro and in a few years, a viable network of monorail that will serve as the backbone of the new public transport system, which must live with the pirates, green devils and carriers acting as members of a shadowy brotherhood.

A decade is a long enough period to have largely solved, the problems of collective and selective transportation.

This major failure is a debt that the political class owes, and three different governments were unable to comply with the fundamental obligation of a State: law enforcement. That is the fundamental challenge that Panama must resolve to honor the victims, to treat survivors with dignity and provide security to citizens.