PANAMA: Facts and Figures

THE LAND: Panama is an S-shaped tropical isthmus that links Central America and South America. It is bordered on the west by Costa Rica and on the east by Colombia. At 29,208 square miles, it is about the same size as the combined total of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

THE PEOPLE: The country has 2.2 million people, 70% of them a mixture of Spanish and Indian descendants. Fourteen percent are West Indian, 10% are Caucasian and 6% Indian. Spanish is the official language but English is widely spoken. The main religion is Roman Catholicism.

THE GOVERNMENT: The government has been nominally headed by provisional President Francisco Rodriguez, who took office Sept. 1. But the de facto leader has been Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, the chief of Panama’s Defense Forces. He inherited command of the military from Gen. Omar Torrijos, who died in a plane crash in 1981.

THE CANAL: The 51-mile-long Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was built by the United States from 1904 to 1914 on territory leased from Panama. Treaties signed by then-President Jimmy Carter and Torrijos in 1977 transfer control of the canal and its defense to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.

THE ECONOMY: Panama was a leading international financial center with about 120 banks holding an estimated $30 billion in assets. But a flight of capital caused by the political struggle over Noriega’s rule has sharply reduced assets to about $8 billion, according to government figures. U.S. officials have complained that secret bank accounts the country offered as business enticements helped make Panama a haven for illegally laundered drug money. Opposition leaders say unemployment last year more than doubled to 23%. The country’s main crops are bananas, pineapples, cocoa, corn, coconuts and sugar.