More than a year ago, the Minister of Environment Milciades Concepción, together with the Attorney General’s Office, presented a bill to the National Assembly of Deputies that seeks to intensify the penalties for those who commit environmental crimes; however, since last February 2022, when it was discussed in the Government Justice and Constitutional Affairs Commission, no more has been heard of this legislative initiative.
Faced with the lack of speed that the parliamentarians have shown, Concepción was optimistic and said that he hopes that the necessary progress will be made so that Bill 516, “That modifies the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to increase the punishment against environmental crime ”, manages to become a Law of the Republic and the penalties are more severe and those who commit crimes against the environment not only pay fines, but also go to prison.
Among the most common environmental crimes registered in Panama are illegal logging, illegal trafficking of flora and fauna, forest fires, contamination of water resources, air and noise pollution, as well as the proliferation of crimes in constructions that they do not comply with the environmental impact studies and their follow-up.
”The vast majority of environmental crimes have sentences of less than five years, for which the judges give them two or three years, (criminals) pay a fine and commit crimes, which is why we presented more than a year before the Assembly National Assembly of Deputies… a bill to increase the penalties for environmental crimes and that they are greater than five years, so we are hoping that the National Assembly contributes to minimizing environmental crimes by increasing environmental penalties by approving this bill”, he specified. .
Concepción’s words were given during the delivery of two vehicles and a drone, which were donated to the Ministry of Security (Minseg) to be used in the fight against environmental crimes.
In this delivery, the Minister of Security, Juan Manuel Pino, stressed that the work against environmental crimes and other crimes does not work and that making joint efforts helps to make the results more effective.
“That work that we have joint and articulated with the Ministry of the Environment and the creation of the office of environmental crimes that the DIJ manages, where large investigations have been carried out with results on both the environment, animal trafficking, people involved in organized crime. , because this is part of organized crime. This is the articulated work that we are carrying out with the Ministry of the Environment (MiAmbiete), “he said, reiterating that they will continue to fight to eradicate crime in all its expressions.
