Fresh fears of concentration of power

The announced merger of Panama’s Immigration and Customs services  is creating fear and suspicion among some of those involved in the process says a report published Sunday.

The merger involves the creation of two new armed police units under the direction of one person and from the outset he will have under  his command three other segments of the security forces says La Prensa.

The director of the National Customs Authority, Gloria Moreno de Lopez, says the move will create two new police forces (both with more than 3 000 armed men)  and would be "concentrating too much power in one person, whose good intentions are clear today, but tomorrow we do not know who will preside. "

Without saying so, Moreno Lopez referred to the security minister, currently Jose Raul Mulino, one of the men an ideologue of the merger, and close to the president Ricardo Martinelli.

From Mulino’s viewpoint  the new body will not be part of the National Police or the Armed Forces, but is not yet clear how the merger will be realized. So far three draft laws have been rejected.

He said the agency will have autonomy to work "outside corruption and manipulation."