The Latin American country has experienced one of the world’s most impressive—and surprising—trajectories of the past three decades.

Panama gets a lot of bad press. Last October, its name was in the news again over the Pandora Papers. Nearly half of the hundreds of politicians and public officials (including three former Panamanian presidents) mentioned in that data leak were clients of one Panamanian law firm. These revelations come only five years after the so-called Panama Papers, which exposed the shady activities of Mossack Fonseca, the now-defunct Panamanian firm that was once one of the world’s largest offshore financial services companies. The small country has developed an outsized reputation for facilitating the unsavory financial dealings of the world’s rich and powerful. Given these scandals, it may seem tempting to dismiss Panama as nothing more than a hub for corruption and illicit finance.   More…