After the lightning operation against heavily armed drug dealers in the neighborhood of Gualey on 12 April, a wave of calm and tranquillity has hit the area, which was widely recognized as one of the most dangerous in the capital and as the center of heavy drug-traffic. According to Arsenio Ramirez of the Listin Diario newspaper, residents have called the sudden change “a move towards brotherhood, without hate and with a common cause against the problems of our community.” People now walk freely in the streets of Gualey, when just a few weeks ago they would fear the wrath of “delinquents and drug dealers” who forced most to stay indoors after dark.
Following the operation carried out by the National Police and the Drug Control Department (DNCD), medical assistance has been provided to poor families in the sector by Navy doctors. “We are living in harmony and tranquility now,” a young man from the neighborhood told the Listin Diario. The situation, according to Mr. Ramirez, had become so out of control that several inhabitants of the area had requested raids of houses suspected of holding drugs and dragnets to apprehend young men involved in crime, although some later complained that the arrests were too indiscriminate in nature.
During the joint police-DNCD operation, drugs, firearms and makeshift weapons were confiscated, and more than one hundred people were detained.
10-16 May 1996