After having finished my degree at the Technological University of Panama in the capital city, I had the great opportunity to jump across the pond and start a new life and fight for each of my dreams. Having settled in a new country, which I did not know or had the slightest idea of how things worked there, I began to study the language since without being able to communicate things were much more difficult than normal and since the Swedish government had programs to teach the language to immigrants, then took the opportunity and enter SFI (Swedish for immigrants).
After having studied for approximately 2 years, I was able to master the language at an intermediate level. Then I could apply for better jobs and things were starting to get much better than at the beginning.
Having the experience of living in different countries, I was able to compare the different types of democracy that exist in both LATAM countries and Europe. Panama is a very young country compared to nations in Europe or North America that have well-established democracies with laws and justice that work. Democracy in Panama is relatively young because Panama was subjected to more than 20 years of dictatorships and governments manipulated by military force. The Panamanian people were able to have a little more rights to choose democratically starting in 1989 with the elected president, after the invasion of Panama by the government of the United States of North America to liberate the Panamanian people from the Dictator.
Living in Europe and already established, it turns out that I had to return to Panama since the Panamanian government was requesting me for some pending matter, which at that time I was unaware of. Having been requested by the government and placed on a list as a highly dangerous person, I returned to my homeland, without having the slightest knowledge about this entire situation. Upon arriving to Panama and having left a life in Europe, I was able to investigate and it turned out that it was a mistake and that the only pending matter I had was a fine that I had to pay because when I was a university student, I worked as a waiter on a beach-bar and one of the chefs was found with a joint and I had a pipe and some marijuana seeds. This happened more than 15 years ago and I had not been able to pay the fine since it took more than 6 years to process the case, which affected my police record. I currently lead a lifestyle where I don’t smoke, drink alcohol or consume anything illegal for years.
Having gone through this whole farce, which drastically affected my life, I was also able to realize that my social networks and my phones were always tapped. They created fake accounts on social networks to commit criminal acts, they diverted my calls to keep me unreachable, identity theft among other things that affect my integrity as a person. Little by little I began to realize all these things that at first I thought I was a little crazy but then it all made sense.
Leave a Reply