Sociologist José Lasso warned about the deteriorating public security in Panama and questioned the millions of dollars the state has spent on international consultants, despite the University of Panama having the capacity and its own studies to guide public policies on the matter.
Lasso explained the existence of scientific research, especially on public security, developed over the last 15 years. The specialist recalled that different governments have intervened with fragmented and discontinuous strategies, which has led to a dangerous normalization of violence.
“Disappearances, homicides, domestic violence, thefts and robberies have become part of daily life, and that is precisely what is most alarming,” he emphasized.
Lasso recalled that during Ricardo Martinelli's administration, comprehensive public security strategies were formulated. “There are structural factors that generate crime: inequality, exclusion, lack of opportunities, and an education that does not prepare citizens to be critical or supportive,” he stated.
The sociologist stressed that insecurity is directly linked to the lack of opportunities and the abandonment of vulnerable sectors, where organized crime and drug trafficking “fill the void left by the state.”
The Statistics of Fear
From January to September 2025, Panama recorded 495 homicides, an 8% increase compared to the same period in 2024. San Miguelito, East Panama, and Colón concentrate more than 60% of the cases. Thefts and robberies grew by 15% in the same period. Over 400 missing persons have been reported so far this year. On average, a homicide occurs every 16 hours in the country.
The Background of Insecurity
Sociologist José Lasso considers that the current crime panorama in Panama is the result of a chain of unfinished policies that have accumulated without effective execution. He recalled that during the government of Martín Torrijos, the first National Criminological Policy was formulated, followed by the Citizen Security Strategy under Ricardo Martinelli's administration, and later a second version under Juan Carlos Varela, but “all remained on paper.”
“Every government creates documents, strategies, and laws that are then filed away in the state archives. However, he said that policies developed with the participation of national experts were archived, and there has been insistence on a strictly police approach.
“Reducing citizen security to a police issue is a mistake. Diagnoses are accumulated, but there is no continuity or will to implement them,” Lasso lamented.
Lasso explained that this institutional vacuum has allowed violence to reproduce in the neighborhoods most affected by inequality. “When the state does not arrive, organized crime offers what the system does not provide: money, a sense of belonging, and false opportunities for our youth,” he expressed.
The academic highlighted that the root of the problem is not limited to the lack of police, but is due to dysfunctional families, state abandonment, and an education system that has lost its focus on values and critical thinking.
“Today we have girls raising girls, grandmothers raising grandchildren, absent fathers, mothers with addictions… and an educational system that trains to produce, not to think,” he added.
For Lasso, reversing this decline requires a comprehensive citizen security policy, with the participation of local governments, educational institutions, and communities.
“Without addressing the social causes of crime, any operation will only be a temporary palliative,” he warned.
Finally, he stressed that the state has the constitutional obligation to guarantee the material conditions for the family to fulfill its socializing role, and without it, “violence will continue to be repeated generation after generation.”
The article “Violence is already part of daily life: inequality and exclusion are determining factors, warns sociologist” was first published in La Verdad Panamá.
