Hoyporhoy La Prensa, July 7

IN ORDER for corruption to thrive in our country, it needs networks of officials and individuals that facilitate, conceal, or are indifferent to what happens around them.

Action, undertaken by the Public Ministry in the case of the overpricing of the extension of the Arraiján-La Chorrera highway shows that 19 former officials were allegedly involved, directly and indirectly, in a major loss to the coffers of the State.

In this story we lacked more heroes who refused to support the robbery that sacked Panama.

We need decent men and women who refuse to be corrupt, even though some of their subordinate and superior colleagues are part of a brotherhood of thieves and accomplices. The clearest lesson from all this is

The clearest lesson from all this is that embezzlement and bribery need the small links that make it work.

If more public servants had resisted against the blandishments of the crimes of the firmament of bandits governed by the previous administration, Panama would have more schools, less hunger and more prosperity. Only one word was enough: No.