Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli Thursday demanded the justice department apply a punishment of 50-year imprisonment to murderers.

"I have a message for all those scoundrel murderers. Be careful, do not play with me," Martinelli said during the burial of a young man who was killed Tuesday during a robbery.

"It is enough of killing people without being punished. Those murderers, minors or adults, we are going to stop them," Martinelli said.

Martinelli attended the burial as a symbolic act to let his government better understand the violence in the country, where every 12 hours there is a violent crime.

Each day in Panama there are two or three murders, in one month an average of 60 to 70 bleeding crimes, with the main motives of fight, revenge, robbery, gang disputes and drug trafficking.

In a most recent UN report in 2009, Panama had an average of 24 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, far surpassing the level considered as "epidemic" of 11 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.