OPINION: A New Window of Optimism for Panama Justice
Justice in Panama has almost always been a chimera. Judges and magistrates have perfectly defined duties in the law and the Constitution, but in practice, their exercise has lacked direction and courage, especially in cases of corruption, in which politicians or their relatives are involved. Therefore, with each ruling, citizens were losing faith in justice. If with the case of the punctures we hit a sort of bottom, and with it the little credibility that remained also disappeared.
The sentence of Baloisa Marquínez has opened a window of optimism for the country when many of us considered the battles for justice as lost. After decades of impunity, of the millions stolen from Panamanians, of crimes without punishment, of convictions in foreign courts that here were transformed into acquittals, a judge has had the courage to condemn the most notorious and cynical of the Creole buccaneers. Neither threats nor blackmail nor briefcases were able to bend the arm of justice and for this reason, the deserved recognition that citizens pay to Marquínez is born.
The road is not easy. There are economic and especially political powers that will not sit idly by. It is up to the citizens to come to the defense of judicial officials who dare to challenge and punish the corrupt. A very high price has been paid by the prosecutors who previously tried to curb impunity, despite the strength of the evidence and the coarseness of the crimes committed. This battle is uphill, and decent and courageous judges and prosecutors must feel supported by a people fed up with political gluttony and white-collar pickpockets.
If the reign of impunity has its days numbered from now on, Panama will rebound, without a doubt, in economic matters; your local and international credibility will increase exponentially; and the money needed to lift hundreds of thousands of compatriots out of poverty will be put to better uses and not to the private pocket of a few. We must not forget that corruption will never go away. If we were angels, we wouldn’t need governments. That is why there is a State body whose duty is to punish lawbreakers.
As long as the law is not twisted to favor criminals; as long as there are exemplary sanctions for corrupt and delinquents; while law enforcement officials are modernized and professionalized; as long as judicial processes are transparent and impartial; As long as justice is independent and away from manipulation, judges and magistrates have assured the support of the decent citizens of this country, including the media, who –like this one– aspire to a country for all Panamanians, and not for a handful of usurpers who destroy the good name of justice in Panama.
We Panamanians have paid a high price for our democracy, but the cost has been even higher for neglecting our duties as custodians of that democracy. We hope that this renewed Supreme Court of Justice will restore our lost faith, something that we are beginning to feel for the first time in a long time. Finally, its rulings speak of true Justice. – LA PRENSA, editorial, Jul 19.
