OPINION: Panama’s Shameful Human Rights Reality

The recent report from the Ombudsman’s Office on respect for Human Rights in Panama reveals a shameful reality from various angles. There are setbacks and, if there are advances, they go in a negative direction. Overcrowding in prisons; women victims of violence, abuse, and even, losing their lives in the privacy of the home; lack of care in hospital centers, especially in the Social Security Fund; problems with an education that mutates into social crises. In short, Panama, despite its resources, continues at the bottom of a hole from which it has not been able to get out for years. Politicians and officials dismiss the idea of improving human rights simply because, from an electoral point of view, they do not represent tangible achievements. It is an absolute shame that the idea of electronically monitoring female offenders has been contemplated for years and, although funds have been allocated for it, it always ends up elsewhere, at the cost of the lives of people who suffer violence just because they are women. Prisons are another shame: overcrowded, veritable schools of crime, in which there is no rehabilitation or turning back. It is a reality as harsh as it is ignominious. – LA PRENSA, Dec. 12