OPINION: Machismo lives on in Panama

The macho roots of our culture are reflected daily in the treatment that many women receive in the country, a reality that goes beyond the capacities of the institutions to offer suitable, efficient and expeditious mechanisms that seek to defend the human rights of victims. For some, it could be something insignificant and even jocular the way in which a group of women in social networks were humiliated publicly and for several days.

 Just as teenage pregnancy may also seem unimportant; the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially among the most vulnerable groups of the population; the silenced violence against girls and young people across the country and the lack of true sex education in our schools. Possibly, the perpetrators of shared barbarity in social networks were, in turn, victims of some form of abuse. But that does not excuse them. Nor is the “little matter” of Panamanian society an excuse, which generally chooses to turn its gaze from behaviors of this nature. However, somewhere we must start making the change. Enough already.- LA PRENSA, Nov. 19