Bellwether Pitches for Panama


News from Panama

The Republic of Panama has hired New York-based consulting and communications agency Bellwether Strategies Inc. to promote the Central American country’s commercial and diplomatic objectives with a worldwide outreach and media relations campaign. According to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed on October 4, the Embassy of Panama has hired Bellwether to represent the Panamanian […]

October 18, 2016

Panama Canal struggles to boost container ship transits


News from Panama

Container ship transits through the Panama Canal are running well below capacity following its $5.25 billion widening, according to ocean carriers that use the Central American waterway. The canal, the larger locks of which opened at the end of June, can handle vessels up to 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, compared with the previous limit of about 5,000 […]

October 18, 2016

The Most Dangerous Cup of Coffee in the World


News from Panama

Artisanal roasters seeking the next great specialty coffee have descended on Congo despite Kalashnikovs and corruption; ‘good body and nonthreatening complexity’ A dozen artisanal coffee aficionados from around the world hovered their noses above cups of steaming grounds and inhaled deeply. Then they tasted the coffee, swishing or chewing it, spit out the leftovers and […]

October 18, 2016

Panama and Taiwan resume cooperation to tackle HLB disease


News from Panama

Taiwan has resumed its technical cooperation program with Panama, interrupted in 2012, allocating one million dollars for the prevention of the HLB disease, a pest in Central America which has decimated the citrus production and was detected in February in the Panama province of Bocas del Toro. Taiwan’s ambassador in Panama, José María Liu, told […]

October 18, 2016

Panama to Import Egg Packaging Duty Free


News from Panama

So, our only supplier had problems with a fire in their factory that make egg cartons and we find ourselves in need of importing them.  I stopped buying eggs in the grocery store years ago and instead buy huevos de patio or back yard chicken eggs at the vegetable market as they are much better […]

October 18, 2016

A Country Tied by Hand and Foot … and by Wheels


News from Panama

In Costa Rica there will never be a Metro, nor an urban electric train, nor any type of efficient public transport system simply because it does not suit the bus companies. EDITORIAL Lack of strong political leadership and a government with real capabilities is preventing Costa Rica from making the indispensable  -and also inevitable- changes […]

October 18, 2016

Panama: Moral Punishment for Money Laundering


News from Panama

A proposal has been made in Panama to make public all sanctions to be imposed on entities that violate the law on prevention of money laundering. The proposal put forward by the National Committee Against Money Laundering, and Financing of Terrorism and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CNBC), created in 2015 within the […]

October 18, 2016

Never Clinton, Never Trump: A Principled Position


News from Panama

Alejandro Chafuen offers this op-ed in the PanAm Post on the candidates and the upcoming election.  I have but one comment, thank God the circus is almost over and I look forward to seeing the flood of people moving to Boquete next year. “Never” is a dangerous word, like “secure.” When Bill Clinton was running […]

October 18, 2016