Archived Articles

Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

Global Real Estate Project
News Index

Directories
  Int'l Realty
  US Realty

Placing Panama on 3rd position in Latin and Central America in what concerns the good prospective for retirement immigration reflects well the excellent image this country has built for itself around the world, based on its newly established political and economic stability. There aren't international statistics of any kind, both political and economic, that don't show the big progress made by this country in the last 13-14 years, following the U.S. military intervention and Noriega capturing. There are no international observers that don't place Panama among the best examples in Latin and Central America.

As we already mentioned, comparing the countries in the region over their political achievements, Panama stands firm on the ground between the other free nations. The Freedom House (FH), the organization that measures the countries around the globe according to their political system openness and the amount of political and social freedoms, has no doubts about where Panama should be put. Since 1995 the country is interruptedly among the free states in the globe, and since 2000 the picture in this respect becomes almost perfect, more or less matching the level of the most advanced countries.

How this evolution has been made possible? The FH, describing the political situation in the late 80's and early 90's as far from the meaning of freedom, refers to the fact that in 1989 the democratic opposition was denied its election victory and instead the country was put under military regime. After U.S. intervention the political situation in the country was described as partly free till the presidential election in 1994. But it was the 1999 presidential election that put Panama among the best cases in the field of political and social freedoms.

There were two other important events in 1999 that was seen benignly by the international observers. First of them, which made international headlines, was the Panama Canal control handover by the United States. Another important event, that occurred in 1999, just before the presidential election, was the inter-party agreement to ban from the election campaign any anonymous contributions. The main reason for such radical step was to bar the illegal drug cartels, operating in the region, from influencing the political process in the country.

On the international scene Panama, as we mentioned in our earlier article, continues to play a broker in the strategic relations between China and Taiwan, considered by Beijing as part of the country. The reason for this interesting game of three is obvious. Both China and Taiwan need Panama Canal for their shipments toward Eastern American Coast and toward Western Europe. Beijing doesn't wish to put hurdles on the Taiwan economic interests in Panama because China doesn't want some day to put hand on economically much weaker Taiwan. Without making loud statements, these two governments are expected to push for new developments in the Canal Zone, aimed to enlarge and modernize the existing infrastructures in order to be able to allow even bigger ships.

On the economic front, Panama shows too good scores, and has just been placed by the World Economic Forum on 59th position in the global competitiveness ranking). There are only 6 countries in Latin and Central America that have better positions.

--------------------

See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Panama.