You don’t have to be really bright to understand that this “mano dura” thing against crime doesn’t work. Countries with low crime rates keep these rates low not by implementing “mano dura” and putting ever more police on the streets, but by sane social policies.
In El Salvador, a country plagued by high levels of gang violence, they have had it with the mano dura approach too. They tried it, didn’t work. In fact, it makes things worse. “It has brought us more headaches than solutions”, said a government official.
Logically, in Panama all emphasis is thus on more of the mano dura programs. More police in the streets, throwing 12 year old kids in jail, round up everybody else too – everything to avoid that something might actually work. So brace yourselves, dear readers, because in the absence of sensible solutions and policy, crime rates will continue to go up.
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