Firearms destruction expands alongside gang links to politicians
In the government press releases on the destruction of firearms, there is a kind of self-promotion because these devices are destroyed every month. The security forces set up a stage for the media, in which the weapons are meticulously arranged. These acts are attended by high authorities, including the President and the Minister of Security, who display solemn attitudes, as in a religious ritual.
In this program – which until last October managed to destroy some 28,000 firearms and half a million pieces of ammunition – revolvers and pistols, shotguns, rifles, and even weapons of war, are taken out of circulation.
On average, some 850 weapons are destroyed per month. I suppose that if they end up dismantled it is because they are illegal and confiscated from individuals and gang members who commit crimes in Panama.
Last year, according to the Public Ministry, more than 80% of the homicides – some 600 – were committed with firearms. 2021 marked the fourth consecutive year in which the number of homicides rose steadily. Also in 2021, almost 75% of the murders were committed in Panama, Colón, and San Miguelito. What do these figures tell us? Well, a lot is failing in the government’s security policy.
Far from the “success” that their press releases convey, I see in these figures failure.
What do security agencies do to combat arms trafficking? Panama is very small, which gives security forces an advantage in obtaining intelligence and keeping organized crime at bay. But there is no such thing. On the contrary, we see that there are gang members infiltrating the Government, including the National Assembly and the Judiciary.
Surely, those gang members enjoy political protection. How to combat criminal organizations entrenched and protected by the government authorities themselves? Please, let’s not fool ourselves. We have seen how some high-flying politicians have come out to defend them or how these gang members work for them in exchange for protection and money from the State.
Politicians and gang members united for common causes or in alliances of mutual convenience. If someone is capable of stealing millions from the State, what prevents them from receiving money from gangs? They enjoy protection: impunity and even immunity. Sorry to say, but we are Mexicanized. Not to admit it is to deceive ourselves. There are the numbers and the facts. The rest is fiction.
We on foot don’t have bodyguards. It is the politicians who need them, precisely because of what they do. They do not go out without protection or escorts, we pay their victims. We have to walk in fear even to go to a restaurant, because, in a reckoning, armed individuals can enter at any moment and kill us by mistake. Thus, what is certain in Panama is that we are not sure. That is the government’s security policy.
Rolando Rodriguez B. La Prensa.
