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10 of 39 homicide detectives fired

National Police chief Gustavo Pérez, with President Martinelli's full blessing, has fired 25 agents of the Judicial Investigations Directorate (DIJ), a part of the police force that was merged into the National Police from the old Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) as part of the Torrijos administration's militarization of Panamanian law enforcement. The detectives, who include 10 of the nation's 39 homicide investigators, staged a peaceful off-duty and out-of-uniform protest outside DIJ offices in Ancon on August 19 to demand pay raises that other National Police officers are getting. Another 39 detectives who did not participate in the public protest but otherwise supported the demand for a pay raise were demoted, transferred or otherwise disciplined.

Ricardo Martinelli is a conservative businessman who opposes labor unions, and in one way of looking at it this is his administration's analogous moment to the time when Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers. However, in this case there was no strike or other form of police service disruption.

Article 311 of the Panamanian Constitution provides that:

The services of the police are not deliberative and its members may not make political demonstrations or declarations in individual or collective form. Nor shall they intervene in partisan politics, except for casting a vote. The disrespect of this norm will be penalized with the immediate firing from the job, in addition to sanctions established by law.

The organic law establishing the police force and its regulations also prohibit involvement in politics, but while prohibiting labor unions for police, also establish a right to due process in disciplinary matters and vaguely promise fair treatment in labor relations. 

The disciplinary measures here were summary and in some cases based on an opinion or suspected opinion rather than any action or declaration. Then there is the question whether asking or demanding a raise is "political," when one's employer is the government.

The Panamanian labor movement, which often finds itself engaged in violent confrontations with police while blocking the street or staging entirely legal protests, has not had much to say for or against the fired and disciplined detectives.

Attorney Carlos Herrera Morán, the president of the Colegio Nacional de Abogados Human Rights Committee, is representing the disciplined detectives in an appeal to the Supreme Court. He called the measures "arbitrary." The National Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), Ricardo Vargas, criticized the firings as extreme. Former PTJ Chief Jaime Abad called the firings "shocking" and opined that the criminals would take advantage of the situation.