What's the crime rate in general in El Valle de Anton, Panama?
Neil Stein - Panama Paraiso
I would be lying to say there is no crime in El Valle. There is! With the world economy as it is, there is crime everywhere - people who are without often feel they are entitled to take from those who have more than they do. This is common in all of Latin America. So, in El Valle, you will find most people have large fences around their property, bars on their windows and often two or three dogs in the yard. However, you will never see violent crime here!...
I would be lying to say there is no crime in El Valle. There is! With the world economy as it is, there is crime everywhere - people who are without often feel they are entitled to take from those who have more than they do. This is common in all of Latin America. So, in El Valle, you will find most people have large fences around their property, bars on their windows and often two or three dogs in the yard. However, you will never see violent crime here! Occasionally, someone will break in and steal a computer or bananas that happen to be lying around. 
I have lived in El Valle since March, 2012 and the first place I moved into was a new two-bedroom house with a locked gate, a chain link fence with barbed wire on top. I told my friend in San Diego I felt like I was living in Auschwitz without the ovens!
But the reality is: people are incredibly friendly here and I never worry about my safety. I am just careful about not leaving things outside that I don't want to lose or have taken.
I moved from Kauai in Hawaii and the fact is you must be careful where you park your car, lock your house and generally protect your property. Crime is prevalent there because of the same economic conditions that exist everywhere. I know this because I used to ride a bike with the police chief who told me exactly what was happening on that beautiful, peaceful Hawaiian island.
So, take the necessary precautions and don't worry about it!
To put things in perspective: You can send your children to school without a chance of them being shot! Perhaps, that is more than you can say for the place you are living now!
Posted April 2, 2013
Bill Brunner
Generally speaking, crime is not bad in El Valle de Anton, although there have been some waves of burglaries, we did have some people mugged, and a couple of weeks ago a delivery truck for a bread company was hijacked but the police were able to catch the perpetrators very quickly.
In order to discuss the level of crime in El Valley, you have to divide El Valle into two sections. One section I’ll call the native quarter. In the native quarter the houses are...
In order to discuss the level of crime in El Valley, you have to divide El Valle into two sections. One section I’ll call the native quarter. In the native quarter the houses are...
Generally speaking, crime is not bad in El Valle de Anton, although there have been some waves of burglaries, we did have some people mugged, and a couple of weeks ago a delivery truck for a bread company was hijacked but the police were able to catch the perpetrators very quickly.
In order to discuss the level of crime in El Valley, you have to divide El Valle into two sections. One section I’ll call the native quarter. In the native quarter the houses are close together, and they don’t have too many nice houses or expat families, although there are some. In the other area of El Valle you have the large estates for the people who just come here for the weekends, in addition to most of the expats, and a few of the regular folks, too.
In the native quarter is where they tend to have more muggings, more drunkenness in the bars, so on. In the other half, most of the crimes are crimes of opportunity, for example, when somebody leaves a hose out or their bicycle unlocked.
We don’t have any concerns about just walking around the town. For example, my buddy and I who are working on rebuilding this place walk every morning from about 8 utill 9 or so, just for exercise. In the evening I don’t have much occasion to walk, but you can without any fear of crime. You can walk on the main drag and you’re not going to get mugged like in Central Park and some places like that.
Some people here have bars on their windows and some don’t. Having a dog is a good idea. Especially if you have a big dog, if anyone was thinking of robbing you, they’ll just go some other place. Most properties are fenced, but not all. Especially if the house is unoccupied and they know it, there is a chance that somebody is going to come in. A lot of that has to do with who your employees are. If your employees are well regarded by the community, sometimes the thieves will avoid your unoccupied house because they don’t want the employer of anyone they’re friends with or related to to have any problems. Still, if your place is unoccupied, it’s good to have neighbors who keep an eye on it or a dog that will sound an alarm.
El Valle is just a basic small town, with two areas. If you go to the native quarter you’ll have more trouble there than the other side of town. On this side of town, you’re not going to have any crime problems. Depending on where people live (for example, if they live up on a hill, pretty much by themselves), they are so unconcerned about crime that they may not even have a front door.
In order to discuss the level of crime in El Valley, you have to divide El Valle into two sections. One section I’ll call the native quarter. In the native quarter the houses are close together, and they don’t have too many nice houses or expat families, although there are some. In the other area of El Valle you have the large estates for the people who just come here for the weekends, in addition to most of the expats, and a few of the regular folks, too.
In the native quarter is where they tend to have more muggings, more drunkenness in the bars, so on. In the other half, most of the crimes are crimes of opportunity, for example, when somebody leaves a hose out or their bicycle unlocked.
We don’t have any concerns about just walking around the town. For example, my buddy and I who are working on rebuilding this place walk every morning from about 8 utill 9 or so, just for exercise. In the evening I don’t have much occasion to walk, but you can without any fear of crime. You can walk on the main drag and you’re not going to get mugged like in Central Park and some places like that.
Some people here have bars on their windows and some don’t. Having a dog is a good idea. Especially if you have a big dog, if anyone was thinking of robbing you, they’ll just go some other place. Most properties are fenced, but not all. Especially if the house is unoccupied and they know it, there is a chance that somebody is going to come in. A lot of that has to do with who your employees are. If your employees are well regarded by the community, sometimes the thieves will avoid your unoccupied house because they don’t want the employer of anyone they’re friends with or related to to have any problems. Still, if your place is unoccupied, it’s good to have neighbors who keep an eye on it or a dog that will sound an alarm.
El Valle is just a basic small town, with two areas. If you go to the native quarter you’ll have more trouble there than the other side of town. On this side of town, you’re not going to have any crime problems. Depending on where people live (for example, if they live up on a hill, pretty much by themselves), they are so unconcerned about crime that they may not even have a front door.
Posted August 26, 2014
Tara Crellin - Dlaaya
The crime rate in El Valle de Anton is pretty low. You’re going to find that in Panama, in general, and in El Valle that the crimes that happen here are typically crimes of opportunity. If you walk around looking flashy, wearing a diamond ring, driving a Range Rover or a BMW, and you’re flashing money all over the place, you may be targeted because people want your stuff. Your house might get robbed; they may take your TV, electronics, and anything else that is of value. ...
The crime rate in El Valle de Anton is pretty low. You’re going to find that in Panama, in general, and in El Valle that the crimes that happen here are typically crimes of opportunity. If you walk around looking flashy, wearing a diamond ring, driving a Range Rover or a BMW, and you’re flashing money all over the place, you may be targeted because people want your stuff. Your house might get robbed; they may take your TV, electronics, and anything else that is of value. If you’re living in Panama, you’d want to be a bit lower key. You don’t want to be too flashy. If there is a crime that happens here, it is typically not a violent crime; it is more of a crime of opportunity. For that reason, you don’t want to leave your house unoccupied for a long length of time. If you are going on a holiday, you want somebody to be in your house because if nobody is watching your house then someone might rob your house. If thieves notice that your house is empty for about a week, they could break in and steal your things.
As far violent crime, that it is not a big concern here. You don’t have to worry about it. I am from Alberta, Canada. The biggest difference between Canada and Panama relative to crime and protecting your own house is that in Latin America/South America it is very common to have bars on the windows. Where I am from in Canada, you don’t typically have bars on your windows. You may have bars on the basement windows in Canada, but here in Panama, you have bars on every one of your windows. This is just part of their culture.
I don’t think the types of crimes in El Valle and the types of crimes in Alberta are very different. Here in El Valle, thieves might target your house more than they would try to steal from you while you are walking on the streets. In Canada and the States, there are more violent crimes than happen here are in Panama.
I don’t feel unsafe at all in El Valle. You can just walk from the restaurant and walk home and there is not a problem. We are not in a gated community. We live in the mountains in a typical Panamanian community. All of our neighbors are Panamanian. We have bars on all of our windows. We have sliding glass doors but we also have bars outside of that, and we do lock all of our doors at night. We lock the main gate whenever we leave our house. On our driveway, we have a gate that we lock as well.
There were some instances where somebody breaks in your house while you’re sleeping but they’re not there to hurt you. If you fight back, then they will potentially fight back, but if you don’t and you just let them take your stuff, they’re not going to hurt you. It’s not that different in Canada. These incidents also happen in Canada and in the States and even in broad daylight, but it is not a common occurrence here.
In general, if you go to Latin America, you will see bars on the windows of most houses and that is just culturally, how they are. When you move to a country such as Panama, I feel that you should adapt to the culture, and part of their culture is to have bars on their windows. If you choose not to have bars on your windows, which some people do, I feel that maybe people will look at your house and see that you don’t have bars on your windows, so then, when you leave your house, they could go in through your window and take your TV, for example.
We’ve been in Panama for two years now and there haven’t been any attempts to break in to our house. We do live more simply here. We don’t have a flashy car, we don’t have a big screen TV, and we’ve also made a big effort to become a part of the community here. Our neighbor on one side is our gardener. Our neighbor on the other side helps us to cook. And our neighbor on another side of that helps us to clean. We pay fairly to everybody and we treat them well. So when we are here and also when we are not, they watch out for our house and we trust them to watch out for our house. They come in every day to keep an eye on things. They make sure that the lights are turned on, that the pool is clean, and they take care of the property so we feel maybe even a bit safer because of the community that we’re in and because we made friends with the people here.
(Pictured: outside courtyard area at Dlaaya Bed and Breakfast in between El Valle de Anton and Coronado, Panama.)
Posted March 31, 2016