A growing number of people from Venezuela have been making the risky crossing through the Darién Gap in recent weeks. Jose Loya decided to make the difficult trek, citing xenophobia and discrimination as some of the main reasons why he chose to leave Peru, where he was living with his wife and child.
Many Latin American countries have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, including Panama. As Mexico considers whether to join, some countries in the region face pressure from the Trump administration not to get too close to China.
With borders closed and entire countries on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, some 2,000 migrants — many of them children under age 5 — have been detained for months in Panama, near the rainforest separating South and Central America.
The president previously decried the influence of foreign lobbyists.
Owners of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City are trying to get rid of the Trump name on their property, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Sarah Chayes, a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says politicians from both sides of the aisle are not taking seriously enough their duty to ensure they're not turning their government role into an opportunity to make a buck.
Manuel Noriega was propped up and later toppled by the United States.
Panama says it's setting up an independent commission to review regulations governing financial and legal services, in the wake of a massive leak exposing the murky world of offshore finance. The Panamanian company at the heart of the crisis, Mossack Fonseca, says it's done nothing wrong.
The issues surrounding offshore tax havens are political, not technical.
Long before news broke on the Panama Papers, Ken Silverstein, a contribuing editor for Vice, was deep in an investigation of the law firm Mossack Fonseca.
They've been called "the Panama Papers." That's because Mossack Fonseca, the financial firm that helped thousands of clients avoid taxes and launder money is based in Panama. So what makes Panama the perfect spot for firms like these to operate?