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They trample upon our freedoms

by Miguel Antonio Bernal

The proposed law that provides for special measures to guarantee citizens' safety and other arrangements seeks to establish an unlimited police state in Panama. For this there is the recently approved Penal Code as an auxiliary tool and, in the attempts of those now in office to perpetuate themselves in power, an accelerating vortex pulling us down toward the worst moments of the Torrijista-Norieguista dictatorship.

The Citizens Alliance for Justice, which has felt fully identified with the citizenry's demand for greater public safety and better action by the police and courts against crime, has issued a communique that, for a change, has been ignored by almost all of the media. Given that the state's obligations must not be discharged by violating the rights and guarantees of due process established in the constitution, I reproduce important passages from that document, whcih the promoters of the proposed law cannot refute:

The proposed law presented to the National Assembly this past April 3 contains various articles that contradict the system of criminal procedure guarantees that must exist, as the product of the State Pact for Justice, and is a setback in the field of procedural rights in that it gives more powers to the police and the corregidores although its proponents know of the deficient preparation of these functionaries.

The proposed 'citizens' safety' law violates the norms of due process... This proposed legislation can lend itself to many abuses.

It also gives more powers to the corregidores, when the decision in the State Pact was to eliminate the position of corregidor and create justices of the peace, because the former are politicized institutions that violate the citizens' right to quality justice.

With respect to juvenile offenders, article 18 establishes that minors will stay in juvenile detention facilities until the moment that they attain 18 years of age, and once they have reached this age they must be transferred to adult penitentiaries. It's well known that these adult penitentiaries don't meet the necessary conditions for resocialization, and much to the contrary, are renowned as schools of crime. This will interrupt the process of resocialization of these minors, losing the investment that has been made during their stay in the juvenile facility.

On the other hand, to transfer responsibility for the juvenile detention facilities to the General Office of the Penitentiary System in the Ministry of Government and Justice denatures the principle of special jurisdiction for minors. Until now and for all these years, the penitentiary system has never been able to guarantee those deprived of liberty the minimal conditions recognized by the nation's constitutional and legal order and international treaties, and thus this would be a total setback for juvenile penal justice.

The problem of violence and insecurity with which we live today is not a product of procedural norms, nor of short or long sentences that our laws contemplate, but the results of a weak family structure in our society, the problem of social exclusion for many Panamanians and the state's deficient action in the struggle against organized crime.

Nor can we ignore the lack of will of governments to commit the funds that are required for the implementation of juvenile penal laws and the modernization of institutions to fight crime --- and now they look, as the only way out, to increased penalties and inquisitorial procedural measures....

We have to fight crime with the rules and principles that allow democracy and the rule of law:

·         They must comply with the accords in the State Pact for Justice to define a state criminology policy and create an institution to oversee this policy;

·         They require the provision of the resources for the Public Ministry and the National Policy to do their work in an efficient manner, and not to increase the procedural steps at the cost of violating people's right to liberty;

·      They require a social policy to confront the problem of gangsterism and juvenile violence, and create job and educational alternatives for youngsters belonging to those gangs;

·         They require the provision of the funds to fully implement the penitentiary law and reduce the high incidence of unsentenced prisoners, which rises to more than 60 pecent of the incarcerated population;

·        They must  consider the crime statistics and other tools, that allow scientific analysis to fight delinquency in an effective way. These tools must serve for the the elaboration of a map of criminality, which permits the police entities to know where crimes are committed, the types of crimes and the resources they'll need to fight the delinquents;

·        They require the restructuring of the content of the courses at the police academies to guarantee that the graduates fit the profile of the police that Panamanian society needs;

·        They require the fomentation of values within the police stations, promoting within them a policy of intolerance toward acts of corruption and strengthening the internal affairs sections that investigate irregular acts within these institutions.

Although we know that this proposed law has been drafted as part of the governmental effort to confront organized crime, we strongly believe that this has not been profoundly analyzed, as it contains some articles that over the long run can produce a dangerous deterioration of the fundamental rights of all of us who live in this country.

This communique was signed by the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Committee, the Panamanian Business Executives Association, the Panamanian Constitutional Law Association, the Union of Citizens of Panama, the Center for Social Studies and Action of Panama, the Center for Research in Human Rights and Judicial Recourse, the National College of Journalists; the General Workers Center of the Republic of Panama and the Popular Legal Aid Center.

Editor's note: As this issue of The Panama News the proposed legislation had stalled in the National Assembly, having been passed by committee but run into difficulties attaining the needed votes in the full legislature. However, it had not been withdrawn and the PRD leadership was expressing its intentions to pass it as is.

Landau, Reality check for Panama City real estate craze
Sirias, Ocean Embassy's meeting a stiff challenge
O'Barry, Of dolphins and decency
Weisbrot, Dragging the World Bank into the 21st Century
Lehmann, The European Union and MERCOSUR
Gutman, ¡Candido Amador Recinos, presente!
Sánchez, Venezuela's security and foreign policies
Wheeler, Morales makes a power play

Silié, Garifunas emerge from oblivion

Pilgrim, Gunman on campus

Bernal, Our rights at risk

Jackson, Revolutionary justice