Panama and the Crossfire of Local Environmentalism and the Global Energy Transition
Cobre Panamá indicates that the process of extracting the critical materials is complicated, messy, and disruptive—for all parties involved.
Cobre Panamá indicates that the process of extracting the critical materials is complicated, messy, and disruptive—for all parties involved.
While Panama’s government and security forces are responding constructively to the simultaneous challenges of narcotrafficking, crimes related to Panama’s role as an international logistics and finance hub, gang violence and insecurity, and massive migration flows, matters are arguably not getting better.
Panama faces an increasingly grave, multidimensional security challenge, driven by the interacting dynamics of gangs and criminal insecurity, drug trafficking, money laundering, contraband goods, and migrant flows.
The UNSC meeting [of 1973] deserves to be more than a footnote in the history of U.S.-Latin American relations and shows how a small state can influence the United States.
Panama stands ready to work with our main strategic partner to invest in strengthening the very institutions and social safety nets that we rely on as the foundation of regional security and stability. This is why it is essential that the United States support initiatives like the Alliance for Development in Democracy.
On Monday, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, member states of the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States to advance the U.S.-ADD Consultative Dialogue on Supply Chains and Economic Growth.
In their effort to assuage reluctant partners in the region, U.S. officials risk ignoring Latin American and Caribbean governments that have consistently supported U.S. interests and values.
Media coverage of the December 8-10 Summit for Democracy has largely focused on President Joe Biden’s remarks, coupled with critical reactions from China, Russia, and skeptical U.S. pundits. Few U.S. commentators seem to have bothered to listen to the three days of often thoughtful remarks by other world leaders and the many intelligent, emotionally engaging panelists representing a broad swath of civil society, business, and academia.
The United States no longer has the luxury to scold its partners in the region. Washington has never faced a hemisphere so politically disposed to resist U.S. pressure, or so fully enabled by an adversary’s money to do so.
The Pandora Papers illustrate the evils of financial secrecy, transnational corruption, and money laundering, as well as the ability of politicians, high-net-worth individuals, and criminals to hide their money. They also show the insatiable temptations of financial confidentiality and the growing knack of the ICIJ to expose financial secrecy.