PANAMA’S SHAME

Kiddie porn for sale on the streets

06-03-2009 | MARIJULIA PUJOL LLOYD

mpujolstar@laestrella.com.pa

Local gangs have discovered that there is a pot of gold in pornography and are exploiting women and children

Panama Star PANAMA. The Panamanian authorities need more resources to fight sexual crimes in the country, especially now that organized crime has become involved.

The National Police and the Public Ministry have detected cases in which local gangs have discovered that pornography is a lucrative business.

Recently, members of a gang in El Chorrillo, were detained for raping and abusing a 13-year-old girl, but what was more shocking for the police was to find photographs and DVDs of the victim being submitted to lurid acts.

The gang had been selling photos and films of the girl in different streets of the capital city. All those involved in the case including the abused child were Panamanian.

The Prosecutor of the First Circuit Sexual Crimes unit, Marcelino Aguilar Aizpurua, said that gangs getting involved in pornography is a worrying trend as they are discovering that there are big bucks in the porno business, with companies in Panama operating as the world’s biggest distributors of “Adult Entertainment”.

However, said Aguilar Aizpurua the Panamanian government is investing more resources in the fight against sexual crimes and one of the first steps is to create an office exclusively devoted to the investigation of these felonies.

Over the last few months the Sexual Crimes office has been receiving equipment and training from foreign experts.

The US embassy has also donated computers and is organizing courses with American law enforcement officers.

The prosecutor said over the last few years Panama has participated in several projects with different international organizations dedicated to fighting sexual crimes and has given training to members of the Public Ministry and investigators of the Judicial Investigation Center.

Aguilar Aizpurua feels that more must be done to enable the capture and conviction of sexual deviants. “We need an investigation body that is more complete to be able to investigate commercial sexual exploitation crimes such as pornography and work together with the prosecutors.”

“The techniques use to capture those criminals are very similar to the ones utilized against drug crimes, because organized crime is involved.

“I feel that if we do not have an investigative organism which has all the necessary equipment and expertise our efforts will be thwarted. But we continue to move forward and manage to catch and convict criminals. The investigation of commercial sexual crimes is very complex, because those involved in the Internet porn business use very sophisticated techniques,” said the prosecutor.

“They transmit their signals from places like Panama, which jumps to other countries such as the United States, Canada and the Netherlands,” said Aguilar Aizpurua.

Talking about the image that Panama has abroad of being the porn capital of the world, the prosecutor said there have been a series of investigations in the country about pornographic material that has been obtained in Panamanian territory. He added that the Public Ministry also has participated in international investigations cooperating with the Interpol in places such as England, France and Chile.

“Basically Interpol tells us if the alleged criminal is using a device to send pornographic material from Panama to other countries. Some of them have been successful, others have failed because we do not have enough experts in the field.”

“The pornographers disguise their Internet and physical address and when we have gone to search the place, we found nothing, but occasionally we are successful like the child pornography case in Chiriqu where countries from Europe and Latin America were involved,” said Aguilar Aizpurua. “We have created a new database that will allow us to classify crimes and that is going to be a useful tool,” he said.

---

THE GROWING SCANDAL

Yesterday we carried details of Adult Entertainment conferences held in Panama and hosted by a company registered in Panama and owned by an expat and his wife.

Adult Entertainment is a euphemism for pornography, and Adult networks can also be the entry port to child pornography sites.

Police forces around the world are combining to fight the growth of sexual crimes, but Panama’s police are hampered by lack of equipment and trained personnel.

With the recognition that kiddie porn is a multi billion dollar industry, local gangs are moving into the market, with terrifying results. The time has come for the Government to give the police the support they need.

Tomorrow: Panama a Sex Paradise

DAVID YOUNG