Panama

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Located between Costa Rica and Colombia, Panama connects Central America and South America. It has an area of 77,381 square kilometers (29,762 square miles). Approximately 3 million people inhabit the country. The majority live in the capital, Panama City. Seventy percent of Panama's population is mestizo (of mixed Indian and European ancestry). West Indians constitute 14 percent of the population, Caucasians 10 percent, and Indians 8 percent. Spanish is the nation's official language, although many professionals and businesspeople in the capital also speak English.

Rodrigo de Bastidas (1460–1526), who sailed to Venezuela in search of gold, became the first Spaniard to reach the isthmus in 1501. By 1502 Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) arrived in the region and established an ephemeral settlement known as Antigua del Darien. In 1513 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (c. 1475–1519) trekked through the isthmus and discovered a path joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This path was later named El Camino Real (the Royal Road). With the continuous arrival of Spaniards, disease, murder, and enslavement threatened the native Indian populations. African slaves soon replaced Indian slaves, a circumstance that endured for approximately 200 years.

By 1538 the king of Spain appointed governors as authoritative figureheads and set up audiencias (courts), thus making Panama a Spanish colony. Panama remained a Spanish colony until its independence on November 28, 1821. Because it was already a part of the Viceroyalty of Colombia, the country became a part of Colombia. By 1903 Panama declared its independence from Colombia. That same year Panama and the United States signed the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which gave the United States sovereign rights over a ten-mile-wide and fifty-mile-long zone, an area that became known by 1914 as the Panama Canal. The treaty, in fact, made Panama a protectorate of the United States.

Immediately upon its independence from Colombia, Panama became a constitutional democracy until 1968 when the military overthrew democraticallyelected President Arnulfo Arias Madrid (1901–1988) and forced him into exile.

Brigadier General Omar Torrijos Herrera (1929–1981) established a military junta. Torrijos led an oppressive and corrupt regime, but later gradually liberalized the political system toward democratic representation (a relatively mild dictatorship). Torrijos's populist domestic programs, which included reforming the agrarian system, attracted foreign investment, and his labor legislation received support from urban workers and small farmers. In 1977 Torrijos signed a treaty with the United States granting Panama full ownership and control of the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999.

After Torrijos's death in 1981, General Manuel Noriega (b. 1934) controlled the National Guard. Noriega's inherited military authority allowed him to become the de facto leader of Panama in 1985. Four years later Noriega's grip on Panama ended when the United States entered the country and arrested him on drug trafficking charges.

After Noriega lost power, Panama once again became a representative democracy. The executive branch consists of a president and two vice presidents who are democratically elected for a five-year term. The legislative branch is also elected by direct vote for a five-year term. The judiciary, which is appointed, is an independent branch of government. It consists of a nine-member Supreme Court and all tribunals and municipal courts. The Cabinet Council nominates the justices, and the Legislative Assembly confirms their nomination. Appointed justices serve a ten-year term.

Colombia; Presidential Systems.

Allrefer.com Reference. 2005. "Panama Country Study and Guide." <http://www.allrefer.com> .

Center for International Development and Conflict Management. 2003. "Polity IV Country Report 2002: Panama." <http://www.cidcm.umd.edu> ;.

Country Watch. 2003 Panama Country Review. <http://www.countrywatch.com� 03E;.

Rudolph, James D. "Government and Politics." In Panama: A Country Study, 3rd ed., ed. Richard F. Nyrop. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1981.

U.S. Department of State. Background Note: Panama. <http://www.state.gov>.

Zimbalist, Andrew, and John Weeks. Panama at the Crossroads. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

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