Nobody killed for nothing – Security Minister

Nobody is killed for nothing said the Minister of Public Security, Juan Pino, on Tuesday, November  23 when asked about the impact of organized crime and narco-politics on State institutions.

The official said that organized crime “what it wants is to penetrate the institutions, not only those of security but as much as it can.”

“Organized crime must be sought and prosecuted,” he added. He said he does not know who is involved, but announced that whoever they detect will be prosecuted “whoever it is.”

Referring to the execution of Agustín Lara, a senior official in the government of President Cortizo, he said “Nobody is killed for anything indirectly, Once the investigations are carried out we will make known the reasons,” he said.

Lara, deputy director of the Public Registry, and a member of the ruling  PRD was assassinated by hitmen on November 14 in San Miguelito. Lara was a partner of PRD deputy Raúl Pineda at the Pineda, Lara, Sánchez, y Asociados law firm.

 He recalled that in this case there is already a detainee and that they are looking for a second person for whom a reward of $ 10,000 was offered.

Days later, the authorities apprehended a man who was allegedly the one who drove the motorcycle from which the PRD politician was shot. Unlike other cases of hitmen, such as the murder of Ovidio Omar Castro Figueroa, alias Tulip, murdered in Multiplaza in August, which caused other deaths in San Miguelito; Lara’s crime has had no known consequences of this kind. Until now, no blood events related to the issue have been reported, and, until yesterday, no official had dared to speak of it said La Prensa.

Both Tulip and Lara were close to the deputy of San Miguelito, Raúl Pineda, also a member of the PRD. Lara and Pineda were partners at a law firm. Tulip, who was an official of the San Miguelito municipality, was a personal friend of the PRD deputy.

The draft law on the extinction of ownership is shelved in the Government Commission of the Assembly. Pino presented it to the full Legislative in April of this year, but it has not generated interest among the deputies.

Narco-politics
Organized crime and its ties to local politics entered the public agenda because of the murder of Lara.

However, this has not been the only figure of the PRD ruler who has lost his life at the hands of a hitman. In August the official of the Presidency of t and leader of the Women’s Front of the PRD, Wendy Rodríguez, was assassinated in the Corredor Sur. While on February 9 Diógenes Yoyi Vergara, who was a former deputy for the PRD, was assassinated in the Cabra sector, Pacora, an area where according to the authorities criminal network led by Franklin Acevedo operates Last week, the Office of the Prosecutor Against Organized Crime, under the direction of prosecutor Emeldo Márquez, apprehended five people linked to the gang in the area, a group that according to the MP, was related to the Clan del Golfo, of Colombia led by Dairo Antonio Úsuga.

Pino said that groups in his charge are doing their job, but warned that they are not accompanied by the authorities of the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch, as organized crime requires,  “firmness and forcefulness ”.

 He brought up a case that occurred in Darien when the National Border Service,  after an operation lasting more than a month, members of an armed group were captured. Despite the fact that weapons and cocaine packages, among others, were seized added, they were given the precautionary measure “to sign.”

He also mentioned the case of a man who participated in a shooting in El Chorrillo. A compliance judge granted him permission to attend the match between Panama and Costa Rica.