Panama City sees the flip side of building bonanza
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Spurred by foreign investment and a real estate boom, Panama City is becoming the Sao Paulo of Central America, reports The Times’ Chris Kraul in this story.
‘Home buyers and investors are flocking here from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Europe and the United States,’ Kraul writes.
‘Its cosmopolitan ambience has a renegade element: Panama has long been and still is a staging ground for illegal arms going south to Colombian armed groups and for drugs traveling north to U.S. consumers.’
’ ... Panama’s leaders insist their country is on a trajectory toward First World status and respectability.’
‘But the rapid growth has exposed the country’s infrastructure as woefully inadequate for its good fortune. Monumental traffic snarls, shortages of housing, electricity and water shortfalls and ugly land-use spats are the flip side of the bonanza.’
-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City
