Recruitment of Panamanians for the War. The Public Prosecutor’s Office Continues its Investigation.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has succeeded in keeping two people in provisional detention for recruiting Panamanians for the war between Russia and Ukraine.
An attractive financial offer that turned into a nightmare is what Panamanians recruited for the war between Russia and Ukraine have experienced. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting 12 investigations related to this recruitment, stated Attorney General Luis Gómez.
12 Investigations at the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
There are approximately 60 citizens linked to Russia and approximately 18 connected to the situation in Ukraine. Two people are in pretrial detention for the alleged crime against humanity of human trafficking. This involved informal recruitment through alleged deception of these individuals who were then transported to those countries. The alleged retention of these citizens’ passports has been detected,” Gómez emphasized. Some testimonies from recruited Panamanians indicate that they were not forced, however the promised conditions changed. “We were seeing that if we went to the front, whoever went wouldn’t get out,” said one of the Panamanians who was recruited after his return to Panama.
Economic Motivations.
What motivated them to travel so far and to nations in conflict? Economic necessity played a major role.
“I think it’s a major contradiction because we have Panamanians fighting in two different armies. It could just so happen that Panamanians are fighting against Panamanians in a conflict that has nothing to do with Panama. That’s what’s worrying about the situation, and that the fundamental motivation is primarily economic,” explained sociologist José Clemente Lasso.
The emotional and psychological consequences must be addressed. We are talking about extreme circumstances. “We’re talking about post-traumatic stress. This is a disorder caused by the effects of the event on the person, and these effects are very impactful because they exceed their capacity to cope. So, once the person returns, there are also clinical criteria that indicate that within a period of time, for example, six months, if this is not addressed, certain situations may arise,” warned Ana María Flores, a social psychologist. The Panamanians were recruited through social media such as Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, but there is no certainty that the recruitment has stopped.
