Above: Panama’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, Ambassador Guillermo Cochez (OAS Photo/Patricia Leiva)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Panama is the latest regional country to receive a firearms marking machine from the Organization of American States, as part of an initiative to combat illegal arms.

The programme, which is already underway in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, is part of efforts outlined by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

The donation of the machine, align with a corresponding computer, was funded by the US government as part of the “Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean” programme.

The equipment is used in a process that marks weapons permanently with identifiable information including the serial number, caliber, model and manufacturing site.

The OAS says it is an essential step in helping authorities to identify the guns recovered at crime scenes, both in determining their origins and identifying trafficking routes and traffickers.

The equipment was delivered during a ceremony at the Administrative Unit of Reverted Properties in Panama City.