Homicides surge 190% in 38 days
So far in 2023, 57 homicides have been reported, 27 more than in the same days of 2022 representing an increase of 190% with most murders occurring in Panama, Colon and San Miguelito and related to organized crime reports La Estrella.
The first victim this year was in San Miguelito when a 27-year-old young man, was killed by a bullet in the jaw when attempting to protect his mother from four hooded would-be robbers. Another murder was discovered in San Miguelito when a dog found a head in a plastic bag.
Some 80% of murders result from gang turf wars says Juan Manuel Pino, Minister of Security who has deployed 300 members of the National Police, the National Aeronaval Service, and the National Border Service in the district of San Miguelito as part of actions to dismantle organized gang groups, responsible for acts of violence and homicides registered in recent days. “We are going to continue confiscating weapons, drugs, money and dismantling criminal organizations,” Pino said.
Criminologist Marco Aurelio Álvarez explained that violence as a lifestyle is caused by a lack of respect for human dignity. In the opinion of the criminologist, homicides tell us two things: firstly, the firearms that must be guarded by the security forces are in the hands of people on the streets and criminal gangs, who see death as the ideal mobile to solve the problems of criminal businesses.
“This leads us to think of illegal arms trafficking,” he warned. And, secondly, deaths from homicide – a violent mechanism – are increasing in the country because more and more entire families are living off crime. “Creole crime has kidnapped the Panamanian population. We must put a stop to it, once again executing the anti-gang law so that everyone who lives off crime goes to prison as a social lesson,” said Álvarez.
Pressure cooker *
Another high-profile murder occurred in Panama City when the body of a hairstylist was found in a state of decomposition in a bag at the Cerro Patacón landfill.
The sociologist Gilberto Toro explained that we are in a kind of “pressure cooker”, in constant “economic stress”. There are people who are not criminals, but who are unemployed or earn very little to meet their expenses and become desperate which can affect their behavior. He added that we could be facing an abandonment of the values to reinforce the counter-values. In other words, shame and modesty are lost in the behaviors and way of thinking of an individual. In the world of crime, at the level, we are at, “gambling is death”. A hitman, for example, only charges for the dead. In his opinion, the increase in criminal actions could also be related to a poor job offer, which competes with a productive criminal offer.
