Defense, Is Panama Safe?

Defense is one of the concepts which worry me here, since it has so many ways to look at it. Certainly our current President is putting Panama on the place of a Secure and Peaceful country, with statements such as, "This country is a country of peace" "Here nothing happens" "We are the safest country in the region" although some of this statements are true, let's not forget he is comparing us with a country which is almost ruled by Drug Lords, another country where you are able to get shot just by having a tattoo, another country where there was a civil war not long ago. So the real question is: Is Panama safe?

In my opinion, Panama is one of the safest country in Latin America, but this does not mean that we are well defended. Crimes do happen all days, cops get bribed daily for even a soda, people break into houses, extortion is something common in our daily lives, people get shot at least 3 times a week and indeed it has turn even less safe in the last 5 years, due to the lack of authority we have in this country at the moment.

You are able to see cops all over the place and security guards almost in every store, even if of some people this means that Panama is safe, the real question should be, why do they need so many cops and so many guns? well we need them because we are not safe. In my opinion, the day the cops start to take their job seriously and stop accepting sodas and food as bribes, that day I will agree that Panama has a good defense system and that we are actually safe here.