Caribbean & Central America - July 2026

A deadly riot which took place on 1 June in La Joyita prison outside Panama City, from which 195 prisoners escaped, and which left three dead, is fanning concerns over the country’s security situation. This came as the government led by President José Raúl Mulino was already under pressure amid a rise in homicides which it has attributed to narcotrafficking, with the country a prime maritime and overland passage for drugs, primarily cocaine flowing from South America to North America and Europe.

Widely described as unprecedented in Panama’s history, the riot reportedly took place when authorities attempted to transfer or reclassify high-profile inmates. At the time of writing (22 June), 178 prisoners had been recaptured on local press reports. With the authorities yet to provide information as to who was behind the riots, from 6-8 June the security ministry carried out a major operation, named ‘Cerrojo’ (Lockdown), at La Joyita involving 5,982 personnel, including members of the national police, the national border service (Senafront), and national aeronaval service (Senan). During the operation, authorities confiscated 10 firearms, 82 rounds of ammunition, 451 mobile phones, 356 televisions, 35 phone chargers, 61 routers, and six antennas along with 343 packets of drugs, and US$11,873 in cash, among other things.

With the director of the country’s penitentiary system, Jorge Torregroza, the only high-profile official to have quit over the crisis at the time of writing, the violence reflects what Mulino described in an 18 June press conference as the “collapse” of the prison system, saying hardline ‘mano dura’ prison measures will be announced on 1 July. The World Prison Brief (WPB), which is published by the UK-based Institute for Criminal Policy Research, puts Panama’s total prison population at 24,651 as of 28 February. This represents an occupancy level of 167.8% given the official capacity of the prison system, which comprises 23 establishments, is at 14,695.

The prison crisis also comes amid wider security concerns. On 12 May the attorney general’s office released new figures which showed that 193 murders had been registered in the first four months of the year, up from 180 in the same period in 2025. April was the deadliest month, with 62 murders, up from 53 in March, 36 in February and 42 in January. Speaking to news programme TVN Noticias on 12 May, the director of the national police, Jaime Fernández, attributed the rise in violence to “ruptures” within organised crime structures. On 14 April Public Security Minister Frank Ábrego said that as of mid-April around 76.5% of homicides hitherto registered were related to organised crime. On 23 May national daily La Prensa cited Fernández as saying that there were 121 gangs currently operating in Panama, down from 180 identified in 2024. These include the two main criminal organisations Bagdad and Calor Calor which both operate in Panamá province, Colón, a province on the Caribbean coast which serves as a key entry point for cocaine, and Panamá Oeste province.

Homicides

The latest annual homicide round-up by specialist website Insight Crime released on 11 March counted a total of 593 homicides in Panama in 2025, a rate of 12.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, the same as in 2024. This is less than Honduras (23.2 per 100,000), Guatemala (17.4), and Costa Rica (16.8), but above El Salvador (1.3). Figures were not available for Nicaragua.

Controversial prison

On 14 June the government announced it had transferred 29 high-risk prisoners to a penitentiary centre on Coiba island. The site had previously been home to some of the country’s most dangerous criminals between 1919 and 2004, when it was shut down and became a national park, and was declared a Unesco world heritage site in 2005. The transfer of the 29 prisoners has been criticised by environmentalist groups, such as local NGO Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (Ciam), which claim that it breaches rules protecting the nature reserve.