Line #31 UsefulNotes/Panama


1	[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/panama-map_3917.gif]]
2	->''"A man, a plan, a canal - Panama"''
3	-->'''Palindrome coined by Leigh Mercer'''
4
5	The Republic of Panama (Spanish: ''República de Panamá'') is a Central American country and the southernmost country in the continent of North America. Before 1903, Panama was just another province of UsefulNotes/{{Colombia}}. Even before that, it was an isthmus discovered by Spanish explorer UsefulNotes/VascoNunezDeBalboa in 1510. He deemed this narrow girth suitable for a trade shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Since then, Panama became known as the "Camino Real" (Royal Way)... but locals also have a less-than-flattering name for it: "Camino del Cruces" (Way of Crosses), because there's the chances of dying within its treacherous, mosquito-infested jungles before one can even reach the other end of the isthmus.
6
7	For all its potential wealth, however, Panama proved to be a geopolitical headache for the rulers in Bogota. Isolated from the mainland by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darién_Gap the formidable Darién marshlands]], Panama was rocked by indigenous rebels and Dutch/English pirates, as well as the occasional freed African-American group. One English privateer, UsefulNotes/FrancisDrake, was so successful he could allow himself to make a trip to see the Pacific Ocean like Núñez had done back at his day. And even when Spain finally completed its conquest of Panama, the same nationalist spirit started to pervade its new Spanish majority.
8
9	Even as New Granada is shaking off Spanish rule, separatists in Panama City, the trade route's southern terminus, are slowly influencing José de Fábrega, the colony's staunchly loyalist head of military, to turn to their side, giving them an advantage. After some negotiations with UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar, in 1821 Panama was admitted to the newly-independent New Granada, now under the name Gran Colombia, and would maintain a precarious alliance with Colombia long after Gran Colombia broke up -- which would also break down like it did with UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}} and UsefulNotes/{{Ecuador}}.
10
11	At the same time Panama soured up to mainland Colombia, the Americans began showing interest in continuing an audacious plan abandoned by the French -- to cut a waterway through the isthmus, allowing for faster maritime travel. When the Colombians refused to ratify a treaty granting America a six-mile-wide (9.7 kilometers) strip across the isthmus, within which the canal would be built, then-President Theodore Roosevelt assisted the Panamanians' drive for independence by placing a NavalBlockade on Colombian waters, allowing the Panamanians to declare independence in 1903.
12
13	During The Seventies the country became a dictatorship under General Omar Torrijos. When he died on a mysterious plane crash, his dictatorship became a BananaRepublic under the command of CIA pawn Manuel Noriega, who then became a despot rebel. His reign ended when the United States invaded in 1989, removing Noriega in an attack called "Operation Just Cause", notable for the first use of the F-117A Nighthawk... destroying half the city in the process. Since then, it's been a democracy and has been fast-growing economically. It is today the second richest country in Latin America (after UsefulNotes/{{Uruguay}}), and the richest in Central America.
14
15	Like its northern neighbor, UsefulNotes/CostaRica, Panama is one of the few countries to have no standing army, having abolished it after Operation Just Cause. It still maintains a small paramilitary force, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_Public_Forces Panamanian Public Forces]].
16
17	Panama's most famous feature is the Panama Canal, fully under the control of Panama since 1999, although the US retains the right to intervene to ensure the free use of said canal if need be. The canal was built, at great expense of life (estimated at 27,500 for the two attempts), between 1904 and 1914, after a failed French attempt in the 1880s. It is a major shipping route for the obvious reason that one would otherwise have to go round Cape Horn instead, an area known for strong winds.
18
19	The canal's lock dimensions are a major factor in shipping design, with many ships built to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax "Panamax"]] size of locks -- 110 feet (33.53 meters) wide, 1,050 feet (320.04 meters) long and 41.2 feet (12.56 meters) deep. However, modern ships tend to be large and a third set of locks with dimensions of 55 meters (180 feet) wide, 427 meters (1,401 feet) long and 18.3 meters (60 feet) deep was completed in 2016 to allow the canal's accommodation of the "New Panamax" ships.
20
21	Panama is well known as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience "flag of convenience"]] for shipping, a status going back to the Prohibition era.
22
23	The famed Pan-American Highway spans a majority of Panama, and is the main east-west route connecting regions of the country. It doesn't serve the Colombian border due to the dense Darién Gap, which leaves the only gap to this highway.
24
25	Panama is a tropical nation rich in wildlife, including sloths, harpy eagles (the national bird), jaguars, and brightly-colored frogs. Panama is home to a biological focused Smithsonian Institution bureau, the only one based outside the U.S.
26
27	As a final note, in 1698, the then-independent Scottish government attempted to colonize Darién. The expedition was an EpicFail: dysentery, malaria and the natives made short work of the ill-prepared colonists. By 1700, most of the 4,000-person strong colony were dead, taking with them a quarter of the total wealth of Scotland. To deal with the debt, Scotland merged itself with England. And that's how a land half way across the world created the United Kingdom.
28
29	!!Panama in fiction
30	* ''VideoGame/DeusExTheFall''
31	* ''Film/LicenceToKill'' features a fictionalised version of Panama, the "Republic of Isthmus", complete with Noriega analogue in the form of the main villain, Franz Sanchez, who reminds the puppet PresidentForLife of [[ShameIfSomethingHappened the last two words of his title]] after his escape from prison.
32	* ''Film/TheTailorOfPanama''
33	* The Sierra game ''Gold Rush'' allows traveling through Panama as an option to get to the west.
34	* One episode of ''Series/{{JAG}}'', "The Colonel's Wife", takes place in Panama.
35	* A major setting in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII''. The various characters discuss in loving detail what a backstabbing, doublecrossing slimeball Manuel Noriega is. The Cold War half of the plot climaxes during the 1989 invasion.
36	* ''The Rising Sun'' by Douglas Galbraith is about the ill-fated Darien colony. Alan Reid of the Scottish group Battlefield Band also wrote a song about the expedition.
37	* Panama is the setting for the third mission of ''Creator/TomClancy's VideoGame/SplinterCell: Chaos Theory''; Sam Fisher has to infiltrate the MCAS Banco de Panama in Panama City when it's discovered some of the payment for the kidnapping that kicked off the game's plot came through them. It's also mentioned in the briefing for the level that the bank in question had a hand in holding some of Noriega's drug money back in the 80s, and that most of the intel Third Echelon has on it now comes from Fisher's team of Navy [=SEALs=] infiltrating it to secure that money during Operation Just Cause.
38	* The [[VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune first installment]] of the ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' series begins off the coast of Panama. ''[[VideoGame/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]]'' features a temple area and a dig site in the country, and ''[[VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]]'' includes flashback events and a multiplayer map set at a prison on the coast where Nathan Drake's brother Sam gets imprisoned for over a decade.
39	* The ''Series/KraftSuspenseTheatre'' episode "Jungle of Fear" is set in Panama circa 1850.
40	* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' Special Agent Nick Torres is Panamanian; his father left the family to help the CIA overthrow Noriega.
41	!!Panamian Media
42	[[AC:Actors]]
43	* Creator/DaphneRubinVega
44	* Music/EricDolphy was born to Panamanian immigrants in Los Angeles.
45	* Creator/YaphetKotto's mother was of Panamanian and Caribbean descent.
46	* Creator/PatrickWayne, second son of Creator/JohnWayne. His mother is the daughter of Panama's Consul General to the U.S. at the time.
47	* Creator/CarlosCarrasco (''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', ''Series/{{Angel}}'')
48	* Wrestling/HulkHogan has some Panamanian ancestry through his mother.
49	* Angela Gisela Brown, an Afro-Panamanian who ended up becoming a part of the House of UsefulNotes/{{Liechtenstein}} when she married Prince Maximilian, second son of the reigning Hans-Adam II, making her the first member of the dynasty to be of mostly-African descent.
50	* Music/JeffBuckley, son of Music/TimBuckley with a Zonian (American settlers of the Panama Canal Zone) mother.
51	* Creator/JAugustRichards came from an Afro-Panamanian family.
52	* Creator/LoriHeuring was born in Panama but later moved to the United States.
53	* Creator/MelissaDeSousa was born to Panamanian parents.
54	* Creator/TessaThompson has Afro-Panamanian ancestry through her father.
55	* Music/{{Ericdoa}} (Eric George Lopez) is of Panamanian and Puerto Rican descent.
56	[[AC:Fanfic]]
57	* ''Fanfic/TheDarkWars''
58	* ''Fanfic/EmperorMarquisBlack''
59	[[AC:Music]]
60	* Creator/RubenBlades
61	* Actress and singer Creator/TatyanaAli is partially Afro-Panamanian through her mother.
62	[[AC:Video Games]]
63	* ''VideoGame/BugFables''
64	----
65	[[AC:The Panamanian flag]]
66	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/panama_flag_1921.png
67	->The flag's blue and red quarters symbolize Panama's conservative and liberal factions, respectively, and the white quarters signify peace and harmony between both parties. Blue and red can also symbolize the seas and the blood shed by its liberators, respectively. The blue star represents purity and honesty, while the red star authority and the law.
68	----
69	[[AC:The Panamanian national anthem]]
70
71	->Alcanzamos por fin la victoria
72	->En el campo feliz de la unión;
73	->Con ardientes fulgores de gloria
74	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
75	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
76
77	->Es preciso cubrir con un velo
78	->Del pasado el calvario y la cruz;
79	->Y que adorne el azul de tu cielo
80	->De concordia la espléndida luz.
81
82	->El progreso acaricia tus lares.
83	->Al compás de sublime canción,
84	->Ves rugir a tus pies ambos mares
85	->Que dan rumbo a tu noble misión.
86
87	->Alcanzamos por fin la victoria
88	->En el campo feliz de la unión;
89	->Con ardientes fulgores de gloria
90	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
91	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
92
93	->En tu suelo cubierto de flores
94	->A los besos del tibio terral,
95	->Terminaron guerreros fragores;
96	->Sólo reina el amor fraternal.
97
98	->Adelante la pica y la pala,
99	->Al trabajo sin más dilación,
100	->Y seremos así prez y gala
101	->De este mundo feraz de Colón.
102
103	->Alcanzamos por fin la victoria
104	->En el campo feliz de la unión;
105	->Con ardientes fulgores de gloria
106	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
107	->¡Se ilumina la nueva nación!
108
109	--
110
111	->At last we reached victory
112	->In the joyous field of the union;
113	->With ardent fires of glory
114	->A new nation shines bright.
115	->With ardent fires of glory
116	->A new nation shines bright.
117
118	->It is necessary to cover with a veil
119	->The past time of Calvary and cross
120	->Let now the blue skies be adorned with
121	->The splendid light of the concord.
122
123	->Progress caresses your path.
124	->To the rhythm of a sublime song,
125	->You see both your seas roar at your feet
126	->Giving you a path to your noble mission.
127
128	->At last we reached victory
129	->In the joyous field of the union;
130	->With ardent fires of glory
131	->A new nation shines bright.
132	->With ardent fires of glory
133	->A new nation shines bright.
134
135	->In your soil covered with flowers
136	->To the kisses of the warm terrestrial breeze,
137	->Warrior roars have ceased;
138	->Only fraternal love reigns.
139
140	->Ahead the shovel and pick,
141	->At work without any more dilation,
142	->and we will be as such at work and gala
143	->of this fruitful world of Columbus.
144
145	->At last we reached victory
146	->In the joyous field of the union;
147	->With ardent fires of glory
148	->A new nation shines bright.
149	->With ardent fires of glory
150	->A new nation shines bright.
151	----
152	[[AC:Government]]
153	* Unitary presidential constitutional republic
154	** President: Laurentino Cortizo
155	** Vice President: Jose Gabriel Carrizo
156	----
157	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
158	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Panama City
159	* '''Population:''' 4,379,039
160	* '''Area:''' 75,417 km
161	(29,119 sq mi) (116th)
162	* '''Currency''': Panamanian balboa (B/.) (PAB), United States dollar ($) (USD)
163	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' PA
164	* '''Country calling code:''' 507
165	* '''Highest point:''' Volcán Barú (3475 m/11,401 ft) (50th)

Context UsefulNotes / Panama