President accuses past rulers of cozy deals with drug traffickers

President Ricardo Martinelli, has accused “all previous governments” of having had "an amicable arrangement” with these drug traffickers" in a clear allusion to the traffickers who have operations in Panama’s border with Colombia says La Prensa.

Martinelli was speaking to local media who were waiting at the entrance of the Hospital San Fernando, where two agents from the State Border Service are being treated

On Thursday afternoon (July 24) the officers were wounded after stepping on a land mine that was placed, according to Martinelli, by drug traffickers and not guerrillas.

Asked by reporters what government had the “arrangements Martinelli said "all previous governments."
Martinelli said that half of the robberies and murders that occur in Panama are "proceeds of drug trafficking." "It’s not good because of the damage they are doing to Panamanian society."
He said the agents were in stable condition and that the government will help.

Martinelli said that the officers were in a patrol car and security had been tightened in the province of Darien.