Mayín Correa on Mayer Mizrachi’s Municipal Police in Panama – ‘It’s illegal. Period’.
The governor pictured below said that this police force ‘is terrifying’ and must be ‘disarmed’ as soon as possible.
The former mayor of the capital and current governor of Panama, Mayín Correa, joined the criticism against the creation of the Municipal Police of the Mayor’s Office of Panama. “This is completely illegal,” Correa asserted in an interview with news media. She recalled that during her tenure as mayor (1994-1999) she created a municipal security force with the objective of protecting the assets of the capital city. “They would take things from the park, they would steal from us, even the benches,” Correa said, explaining that, at that time, the Mayor’s Office had to request support from the National Police to deal with these types of situations. Municipal Agreement No. 7 of January 11, 1996, created the Inspection Department and the Immediate Response Service.
The canine and motorized units were added as support sections. “We only gave a small gun to the agents who carried the Treasury money to the bank, and then we took it back,” he explained. Correa assured that the administrations of José Blandón (2014-2019) and José Luis Fábrega (2019-2024) maintained the surveillance department as such, in charge of guarding the assets of the Mayor’s Office and the parks, in addition to providing assistance to the citizens. Now, he said, Mayor Mayer Mizrachi has transformed that department into a police force, with former members of the National Border Service, whom, he claimed, they train “as if they were going to war” and equip with weapons “better than the police.”
“I created a security agency for the Municipality of Panama, nothing like the police, nothing like the police regulations they have now. It’s terrifying,” he asserted. Correa also praised the position of President José Raúl Mulino, who last weekend spoke out against this police agency, and expressed his hope that the initiative would be annulled. “It’s illegal, period. Fortunately, they’re going to declare this illegal,” he asserted. “There cannot be two police forces in the country,” he added, while warning that other municipalities could try to replicate that model.
‘It’s a Box Office Hit’.
This Thursday, Mayor Mizrachi pictured below, again defended the creation of the Municipal Police and rejected the criticisms. The mayor said, during the start of the city’s river cleanup and restoration work, that the criticism comes from “failed” politicians and maintained that the initiative seeks to “complement” the work of the National Police, provided there is coordination between both institutions. “The Municipal Police is not an invention of this municipality; it is a police force that existed 30 years ago and dates back 100 years in other municipalities,” said Mizrachi. In his view, the debate should focus on efforts to solve citizens’ problems. “It’s just a platform for failed politicians,” he retorted.
The Municipal Police was created through Municipal Agreement No. 162 of June 17, 2025, approved in less than five minutes and “with notorious urgency” by the Municipal Council, at the request of Mizrachi. The regulation establishes a structure with ranks based on police and military traditions: corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and a major. Furthermore, it authorizes its officers to carry “short and long firearms, excluding weapons of war,” conduct body searches, search vehicles, and apprehend citizens—powers that, according to the Ministry of Security, encroach upon competencies that the Constitution reserves for state security agencies. The agreement has already been the subject of two legal actions.
The National Police filed a constitutional challenge against the agreement in February 2026. However, the full Supreme Court did not accept the challenge. Subsequently, the Ministry of Public Security filed a lawsuit seeking to annul the decision before the Third Chamber of the Administrative Court of the Supreme Court of Justice. This appeal was admitted and seeks to invalidate the agreement that created the Municipal Police. On Monday, Congressman Ernesto Cedeño, from the Seguimos party, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the agreement. According to Cedeño, the creation of this security force, which reports to the Mayor’s Office of Panama City, “exceeds the powers” of a municipal council and should have been established through a law passed by the National Assembly. The appeal was accepted.
