BRIEFS. national

Undocumented evade Guabalá checkpoint

The commissioner of the Policía Nacional (PN), Luciano Franco Gómez, announced that necessary measures will be taken to prevent undocumented people from sneaking into Panama through the Tolé district in David, Chiriquí, which borders Costa Rica.

Gómez said Tolé is often used by people to avoid the checkpoint in Guabalá and "evade the Dirección de Investigación Judicial (DIJ) and the Policía Nacional y Aduanas quartered there."

The commissioner gave assurances, however, that police investigate suspicious citizens traveling by bus who get off at Tolé while holding tickets to David -a clue that some irregularity is occurring.

Tolé covers a wide area fringed by mountains to the north and mangroves to the south.

"The undocumented citizens that we detained so far have all been captured in Tolé because of the accessibility to everything," from food to public services, Gómez said. "They know that if they get out after Tolé they will find only pastures where nobody lives."

Gómez concluded that by maintaining a good number of police in the area it will get harder for undocumented citizens to evade the checkpoint.