Criminalist Álvaro Menéndez issues a severe alert about the security crisis gripping the country: 'The social fabric of Panama is destroyed.' In his view, poverty, marginalization, and economic inequality are the raw material for the crime that suffocates communities. 'The lack of job opportunities for youth, dysfunctional families, and the influence of negative groups in so-called red zones are factors pushing people toward crime,' Menéndez stated, not hesitating to assert that Panama is 'raising its own social monster.' The National Police is in a critical state and requires urgent re-engineering, the expert maintains. 'It's not possible for the security force to lack the instruments and tools necessary for prevention,' he claimed. He recounted an incident in Bella Vista: 'One morning there was a tremendous shootout. When the police were called, they responded they had no available units... and the precinct is just half a block away.' Menéndez also denounced that some police zones depend on rented cars, but the state has a high delinquency in paying those rentals: 'They are doing a great disservice to citizen security if they don't even pay those debts,' he warned. The criminalist was blunt in stating that Panama has regressed over 15 years in scientific investigation since the disappearance of the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ) in 2007. 'Since then, we are not conducting the scientific investigations that the Public Ministry needs under the new accusatory penal system,' he lamented. He also criticized that a first-responding officer can lift evidence at a crime scene using a catchment form: 'That violates the 2016-approved chain of custody manual. Criminalistics needs independence and resources.'
