The president of Panama, José Mulino, announced this Thursday (29.08.2024) that he will impose a curfew in two areas of the country to “clean” the streets of crime, and also ordered a purification in airports to face drug trafficking.
The curfew that prevents the free movement of the population will apply from “nine at night to five or six in the morning” in the Caribbean province of Colón and in the populous district of San Miguelito, adjacent to the Panamanian capital, he said.
“I hope there is a curfew in those two places because they are perhaps the areas most affected by this gang issue. Drug trafficking changed the entire criminal structure,” the president said at his weekly press conference.
Mulino did not specify the date on which this measure will come into force.
In recent weeks, dozens of people have been arrested in Panama, including police officers and the son of a deputy, for their alleged relationship with gangs or drug trafficking.
According to the authorities, these gangs traffic drugs and launder money from drug trafficking. In addition, most homicides in the country are related to these criminal associations.
The president also announced a “purification” at the airports, including Tocumen, the country’s main airport and a regional connection center, which he called a “hot terminal”, as part of the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.
Mulino instructed the National Aeronaval Service (Senan) to “intensify patrolling on the coasts” and to “take the security of all the ports of the country, Tocumen included.”
“Senan will be in charge of the security of the airports while we purify those transport terminals, especially in the cargo areas as far as Tocumen is concerned, which is the hot terminal, and those who listen to me know why I say it,” said the Panamanian president without further details.
Security at Tocumen International Airport is currently in charge of the National Police, Senan and agents of the terminal itself.
Mulino, who took office on July 1 for the five-year period 2024-2029, said that Senan “will take control of the country’s airport security in the coming days.”
“We will work hard with them (Senan) to clean those structures and I have asked the director of Customs to do the same at the entrances of the country (…) and to reinforce the entry points including private ports,” he added.
Panama is used as a bridge to the drug produced in South America and whose main destination is the United States, the world’s largest cocaine consumer, and also Europe.