Panama is also a young democracy that's still struggling to emerge from the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega in the 1980s. The current president, Ricardo Martinelli, won the 2009 elections by a landslide. But following a series of corruption scandals, his popularity has plummeted.
Miguel Antonio Bernal, a constitutional law professor at the University of Panama, says Martinelli's authoritarian administration is running roughshod over the rule of law to attract more foreign INVESTMENT while ignoring the needs of ordinary Panamanians.