PANAMA - Central America
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on an isthmus, some categorize it as a transcontinental nation connecting the north and south part of America. It borders Costa Rica to the north-west, Colombia to the south-east, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. It is an international business center and is also a transit country. In Central America, it is the most industrialized country, although Panama is also the 3rd largest economy in Central America, after Guatemala and Costa Rica, it has by far the most developed economy and has the largest expenditure on resource consumption, making the country the largest consumer in Central America.[1] Panama had a rich Pre-Colombian heritage of native populations whose presence stretched back over 11,000 years. Many of us remember on 20 December 1989, twenty-seven thousand U.S. personnel invaded Panama in order to remove Manuel Noriega.