Panama
Panamanians' culture, customs, and language are predominantly
Caribbean Spanish. The majority of the population is ethnically
mestizo or mixed Spanish, Indigenous, Chinese, and West Indian.
Spanish is the official and dominant language; English is a common
second language spoken by the West Indians and by many
businesspeople and professionals. More than half the population
lives in the Panama City-Colon metropolitan corridor.
Panama is rich in folklore and popular traditions. Lively salsa--a
mixture of Latin American popular music, rhythm and blues, jazz, and
rock--is a Panamanian specialty, and Ruben Blades its best-known
performer and Minister of Tourism since September 2004. Indigenous
influences dominate handicrafts such as the famous Kuna textile
molas. Artist Roberto Lewis' Presidential Palace murals and his
restoration work and ceiling in the National Theater are widely
admired.
As of 2004, more than 92,500 Panamanian students attended the
University of Panama, the Technological University, and the
University of Santa Maria La Antigua, a private Catholic
institution. Including smaller colleges, there are 88 institutions
of higher education in Panama. The first six years of primary
education are compulsory, and for the 2004/2005 school year there
were about 430,000 students enrolled in grades one through six. The
total enrollment in the six secondary grades for the same period was
253,900. More than 90% of Panamanians are literate. |
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Panama's history has been shaped by the evolution of the world
economy and the ambitions of great powers. The earliest known
inhabitants of Panama were the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes, but they
were decimated by disease and fighting when the Spanish arrived in
the 1500s.
Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in 1501 in
search of gold, was the first European to explore the Isthmus of
Panama. A year later, Christopher Columbus visited the Isthmus and
established a short-lived settlement in the Darien. Vasco Nunez de
Balboa's tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513
demonstrated that the Isthmus was, indeed, the path between the
seas, and Panama quickly became the crossroads and marketplace of
Spain's empire in the New World. Gold and silver were brought by
ship from South America, hauled across the Isthmus, and loaded
aboard ships for Spain. The route became known as the Camino Real,
or Royal Road, although it was more commonly known as Camino de
Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the abundance of gravesites
along the way.
Panama was part of the Spanish empire for 300 years (1538-1821).
From the outset, Panamanian identity was based on a sense of
"geographic destiny," and Panamanian fortunes fluctuated with the
geopolitical importance of the Isthmus. The colonial experience also
spawned Panamanian nationalism as well as a racially complex and
highly stratified society, the source of internal conflicts that ran
counter to the unifying force of nationalism.
Building the Canal
Modern Panamanian history has been shaped by its transisthmian
canal, which had been a dream since the beginning of Spanish
colonization. From 1880 to 1890, a French company under Ferdinand de
Lesseps attempted unsuccessfully to construct a sea-level canal on
the site of the present Panama Canal. In November 1903, with U.S.
encouragement, Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the
Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States.
The treaty granted rights to the United States "as if it were
sovereign" in a zone roughly 10 miles wide and 50 miles long. In
that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify,
and defend it "in perpetuity." In 1914, the United States completed
the existing 83-kilometer (52 mile) canal, which is one of the
world's greatest feats of engineering. The early 1960s saw the
beginning of sustained pressure in Panama for the renegotiation of
this treaty.
Military Coups and Coalitions
From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a constitutional democracy
dominated by a commercially oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s,
the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political
hegemony. In October 1968, Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, twice elected
president and twice ousted by the Panamanian military, was ousted
for a third time as president by the National Guard after only 10
days in office. A military government was established, and the
commander of the National Guard, Brigadier General Omar Torrijos,
soon emerged as the principal power in Panamanian political life.
Torrijos' regime was harsh and corrupt, but his charisma, populist
domestic programs, and nationalist (anti-U.S.) foreign policy
appealed to the rural and urban constituencies largely ignored by
the oligarchy.
Torrijos' death in 1981 altered the tone but not the direction of
Panama's political evolution. Despite the 1983 constitutional
amendments, which appeared to proscribe a political role for the
military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), as they were then known,
continued to dominate Panamanian political life behind a facade of
civilian government. By this time, General Manuel Noriega was firmly
in control of both the PDF and the civilian government.
The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama
in the summer of 1987 in response to the domestic political crisis
in Panama and an attack on the U.S. Embassy. In April 1988,
President Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act, freezing Panamanian Government assets in all U.S.
organizations. In May 1989 Panamanians voted overwhelmingly for the
anti-Noriega candidates. The Noriega regime promptly annulled the
election, and embarked on a new round of repression. By the fall of
1989 the regime was barely clinging to power, and the regime's
paranoia made daily existence unsafe for American citizens.
On December 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S.
military into Panama to protect U.S. lives and property, to fulfill
U.S. treaty responsibilities to operate and defend the Canal, to
assist the Panamanian people in restoring democracy, and to bring
Noriega to justice. The U.S. troops involved in Operation Just Cause
achieved their primary objectives quickly, and Noriega eventually
surrendered to U.S. authorities. He completed his sentence for drug
trafficking charges in September 2007. In August 2007, a U.S.
federal court in Miami found Noriega extraditable to France to serve
a sentence imposed there after an in absentia conviction for money
laundering. Noriega remains in custody pending the outcome of his
legal challenges to the certificate of extraditability issued August
2007.
Rebuilding Democracy
Panama's Electoral Tribunal moved quickly to rebuild the civilian
constitutional government, reinstated the results of the May 1989
election on December 27, 1989, and confirmed the victory of
President Guillermo Endara and Vice Presidents Guillermo Ford and
Ricardo Arias Calderon.
During its 5-year term, the often-fractious Endara government
struggled to meet the public's high expectations. Its new police
force was a major improvement over its predecessor but was not fully
able to deter crime. Ernesto Perez Balladares was sworn in as
President on September 1, 1994, after an internationally monitored
election campaign.
Perez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition
dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile
political arm of military dictatorships. Perez Balladares worked
skillfully during the campaign to rehabilitate the PRD's image,
emphasizing the party's populist Torrijos roots rather than its
association with Noriega. He won the election with only 33% of the
vote when the major non-PRD forces splintered into competing
factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often
worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal
treaties.
On September 1, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President
Arnulfo Arias Madrid, took office after defeating PRD candidate
Martin Torrijos, son of the late dictator, in a free and fair
election. During her administration, Moscoso attempted to strengthen
social programs, especially for child and youth development,
protection, and general welfare. Moscoso's administration
successfully handled the Panama Canal transfer and was effective in
the administration of the Canal.
The PRD's Martin Torrijos won the presidency and a legislative
majority in the National Assembly in 2004. Torrijos ran his campaign
on a platform of, among other pledges, a "zero tolerance" for
corruption, a problem endemic to the Moscoso and Perez Balladares
administrations. Since taking office, Torrijos has passed a number
of laws making the government more transparent. He formed a National
Anti-Corruption Council whose members represent the highest levels
of government, as well as civil society, labor organizations, and
religious leadership. In addition, many of his closest Cabinet
ministers are non-political technocrats known for their support for
the Torrijos government's anti-corruption aims. Despite the Torrijos
administration's public stance on corruption, few high-profile
cases, particularly involving political or business elites, have
been acted upon. |
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