PRESIDENT: Jose Raul Mulino (Sept. 2024 - 2029)
POPULATION: 3.1 million
KEY EXPORTS: bananas, coffee, fish
PRESIDENT: Jose Raul Mulino (Sept. 2024 - 2029)
POPULATION: 3.1 million
KEY EXPORTS: bananas, coffee, fish
Home page >> Latin America Intro page >> Panama ("under reconstruction")Updated:
| Decade / year | Key events |
| 1900s | Gained independence from Colombia, with U.S. support, to facilitate building the Panama Canal. |
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| 1970s | Gen. Omar Torrijos seizes power and leads as a populist. |
| 1980s | After Torrijos dies in a plane crash, Gen. Manuel Noriega assumes control and adopts a pro-narcotics trafficking policy. U.S. forces invade and capture him in Dec. 1979. |
| 1990s | Political turmoil. |
| May 1999 | Mireya Moscoso, widow of Pres. Arnulfo Arias (deposed by Torrijos in 1968) won presidential election on a populist platform. |
| Sept. 1999 | Mireya Moscoso is inaugurated president, but outgoing Pres. Balladares didn't even attend the ceremony.. |
| Dec. 1999 | U.S. hands over control of canal to Panama; Jimmy Carter attends the ceremonies. |
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In spite of its strategic location, travel overland from Panama remains impeded by heavy jungles. It is extremely difficult to get to Colombia through the Darien Gap to the south.
NEIGHBORS: Costa Rica and Colombia
Like Ecuador and Venezuela, Panama was originally part of "Gran Colombia" or "Nueva Granada." Unlike those two, however, Panama remained under control of Bogota until 1903, when an independence campaign inspired by the United States achieved secession. Construction under U.S. direction began, and the canal was completed in 1914. Resentment toward the U.S. over the U.S. Canal Zone In January 1997 the Panamanian legislature passed a measure that granted Hong-Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa concessions to operate the ports at both ends of the canal: Balboa . As a result, China now exercises considerable indirect influence over hiring of canal workers. The canal reverted to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999. A referendum on whether to widen the canal will be held October 22, 2006.
Befitting its locations as an intercontinental transportation hub, Panama has a cosmopolitan atmosphere. One of its best-known popular singers, Ruben Blades, has also been a movie actor and a political activist.
Baseball: Small interest
