The levels of citizen insecurity continue to rise. Robberies and assaults have become more frequent in recent weeks, with jewelry stores and banks as if they were red zones. In contrast, the local political elite enjoys the security provided by the Institutional Protection Service (SPI). Protecting this elite costs us Panamanians $30.2 million a year, and it is not all the private security provided by the State, given that other entities have their own body of institutional protection. Obtaining data on the operation of the SPI has been impossible, because its authorities hide who they protect and with how many agents, under the guise of national security. And so, people who cost us much more than two or three agents per shift, it gets the security that ordinary citizens don't have and may need more urgently. Without going any further, a teenager was sexually assaulted in a region, but she has not been able to file a complaint because the authorities do not have a presence there. Those responsible for making this a safer country, what they do is make sure that the State protects them. And those who don't, go to elections. – LA PRENSA, Oct. 16.