These ordinances reflect an irrationality because of the complete absence of community participation in formulating the criteria for criminalization and decriminalization, the ad hoc approach employed in suspending or dictating the execution of the laws, their foundation in policies foreign to the social and economic context of Panama, and the country's actual ability to apply the codes or pay the cost of implementing them. Because the penal code does not effectively protect the interests of the community from differential treatment, there exists a lack of proportionality between an offense and its subsequent punishment. Incongruities between the new penal code and the previous procedural code and within the juridical system also impede implementation. Pressures from the state, sectors of the judicial system, and other groups who perceive their interests to be threatened also impede implementation. Finally, the new laws continue to provide an effective means of social control that allows privileged groups to maintain their sinecures with impunity and retain the relations of domination generated by the capitalist system of production. 5 notes and 22 references.