Panama: Funding Punishment or Prevention?
Editorial by La Estrella de Panama
HAVANA TIMES – What is the Panamanian government’s social policy?
That’s not a rhetorical question. The budget bills for both 2025 and 2026 under the administration of Panama’s current president Jose Raul Mulino reveal a contradiction that is difficult to justify: while $300 million is earmarked for the construction of three new prisons, seven key institutions for human development face cuts totaling more than $200 million when compared to the final year of the previous administration.
The budgetary message is clear and troubling: prevention is not a priority. Fiscal austerity did not trim bloated payrolls or address excesses in government operations; instead, it dealt a heavy blow to public investment, with cuts of up to 25%.
Building prisons without investing in prevention is admitting failure without even trying to avoid it. It means investing in prison bars instead of schools, walls instead of opportunities, punishment instead of a future.
Panama needs security, yes, but no society becomes secure by abandoning its most vulnerable members. Organized crime grows precisely where the state withdraws. The country demands transparency, clear priorities, and robust social investment. Because a nation is not measured by the number of prisons it inaugurates, but by the number of lives it succeeds in salvaging before it becomes too late.
First published in Spanish by La Estrella de Panamá and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.