HomeNewsBriefLift on Panama Firearms Import Ban May Backfire Amid Homicide Spike
BRIEF

Lift on Panama Firearms Import Ban May Backfire Amid Homicide Spike

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 31 JAN 2020 BY PARKER ASMANN EN

Officials in Panama have ended a nearly decade-long ban on the importation of firearms, a move that could end up benefiting traffickers and corrupt officials at a time when the Central American nation’s murder rate is on the rise.

President Laurentino Cortizo and Security Minister Rolando Mirones announced the decision to let a 2011 law expire that limited the amount of firearms importers could receive per shipment in a January 21 press release.

The law restricted importers to 200 firearms per shipment and 400 annually, according to Isaac Brawerman from Panama’s Association of Gunowners (Asociación Panameña de Propietarios de Armas -- APPA), EFE reported. Before the law on weapons imports went into effect, importers were able to receive as many as 4,000 firearms in a single shipment, according to Brawerman.

SEE ALSO: Panama News and Profile

The move comes amid an uptick in the country’s murder rate. Last year closed with 472 homicides, 74 percent of which were committed with firearms, according to data from the Attorney General's Office. This marked a 7.5 percent increase from the 439 homicides that were tallied in 2018. 

Minister Mirones claimed earlier this month that the majority of Panama’s homicides are the result of disputes between gangs, a dynamic that could grow worse amid the loosening of firearm regulations and a possible increase in the number of weapons in circulation.

InSight Crime Analysis

It’s hard to see the logic behind easing restrictions on firearms imports in Panama at a time when murders are climbing, especially considering that such weapons have long been a driving force behind violence in Latin America and the Caribbean -- one of the most homicidal regions in the world.

Panama has in the past been identified as an important hub in the regional arms trade, according to a 2012 threat assessment from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Its geographic location makes it a natural destination for weapons leaving the United States, where gun laws are lax, and traveling through Central America. From Panama, the guns are then moved out of the country and often south into Colombia.

(Map courtesy of UNODC)

Firearms from Central America’s civil wars or smuggled from security forces are also frequently trafficked. These weapons often wind up in the hands of the region’s criminal groups due to corrupt officials and weak oversight.

Indeed, in January of this year, Panamanian prosecutors announced that they would be filing arms trafficking charges against the former director of the country’s Public Security Directorate (Dirección Institucional de Asuntos de Seguridad Pública – DIASP), Ovidio Fuentes, for allegedly importing weapons and munitions illegally from the United States to then resell at marked-up values, La Prensa reported.

Fuentes and other former DIASP officials reportedly altered firearm permits to show that the weapons were purchased in compliance with the 2011 law, when the firearms had in fact been purchased between 2016 and 2017. In accordance with the previous ban, only authorized security personnel were allowed to import weapons, and DIASP officials were responsible for providing the proper permits and certifications for such firearms.

Authorities in Panama have not yet provided more details on the new regulations, but the move to reopen weapons imports risks exacerbating the problem of criminal groups obtaining firearms. A proposed easing of gun laws in countries like Brazil has faced similar criticism.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 16 DEC 2021

Two sons of former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States related to…

COLOMBIA / 24 NOV 2022

Migrants crossing the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama face extortion, rape, violence, and being forced to carry drugs.

BOLIVIA / 3 MAR 2023

As the CITES treaty hits 50, we take a look at its successes, failures, and future challenges in reducing the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…