The politics of Panama take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic with multi-party system, whereby the President of Panama is both head of state and head of government.
Arnulfo Arias Madrid was a Panamanian politician, medical doctor, and writer who served as the President of Panama from 1940 to 1941, again from 1949 to 1951, and finally for 11 days in October 1968.
Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino is a Panamanian politician who was 30th President of Panama from September 1, 2004 to June 30, 2009.
Guillermo David Endara Galimany was a Panamanian politician who served as the president of Panama from 1989 to 1994. Raised in a family allied to Panameñista Party founder Arnulfo Arias, Endara attended school in exile in the United States and Argentina following Arias's removal from power. Endara later received a law degree in Panama. He subsequently served as a member of Panama's National Assembly, and briefly as a government minister before heading into exile again following Arias' third overthrow.
The National Assembly of Panama, formerly the Legislative Assembly of Panama(Asamblea Legislativa de Panamá), is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Panama.
The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of Nicaragua founded in January 1985.
Guillermo Tell Villegas was a Venezuelan politician, lawyer, and writer. Among other government positions, he served as interim president of Venezuela in 1868, 1870 and 1892. Starting his career in law, he became governor of Barinas in 1859 and afterwards held various roles in the government of Juan Crisostomo Falcon, including deputy in the Assembly of Victory, Minister of Interior and Justice, and interim Foreign Minister of Venezuela. In 1864 and in 1866 was appointed to the Federal High Court. Villegas participated in the La Genuina revolution in 1867, and was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1868, where he openly opposed the government of Falcón. The Blue Revolution in 1868 removed Falcon from power, and Villegas became Foreign Minister under President José Ruperto Monagas. In 1868 Villegas spent eight months as interim president of Venezuela, during which time he reinstated the Federal Constitution from 1864. After again serving as interim president and Minister of the Interior in 1869, in 1870 he was interim president a third time while Monagas fought the Liberal Revolution. The revolution was successful, and Villegas retired from active politics after ceding the presidency.
Porfirio Alejandro Muñoz Ledo y Lazo de la Vega was a Mexican politician. He was one of the founders of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and served as Ambassador to Cuba from January 2022 until his death.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 2006. In the presidential election, Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party, a former president and Nobel Peace Laureate, was victorious over Ottón Solís of the Citizens' Action Party and twelve other minor-party candidates. Although Arias was expected to win by a wide margin, the actual polling reports were unexpectedly close. However, early results showed the contest to be closer than it actually was. The preliminary official report, after 88.45% of the vote counted, showed the result for President of the Republic almost tied between Arias with 40.51% of the vote and Ottón Solís with 40.29%. Given the small difference of only 3250 votes, the Superior Electoral Tribunal announced that a manual count of all the votes would start immediately and no official winner would be announced until that process was completed, approximately two weeks after the election.
The Panameñista Party is a nationalist political party in Panama. It was the third largest party by number of adherents with 256,138 members.
Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro is a Venezuelan lawyer and politician. She is married to the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, making her the First Lady. Since 2015, she has also been a deputy in the National Assembly of Venezuela, of which she was president from 2006 to 2011, for her home state of Cojedes. In 2017, the Constituent National Assembly was founded, in which she is a member of the Presidential Commission.
José María Rojas Garrido was a Colombian Senator, and statesmen, who as the first Presidential Designate became Acting President of the United States of Colombia in 1866 during the absence of President elect Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. He was a prominent journalist for several Liberal Party newspapers, and is considered one of the most important orators in Colombia's history.
Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez is a Panamanian businessman and former politician who served as the 37th President of Panama from 2014 to 2019. Varela previously was Vice President of Panama from 2009 to 2014 and Minister of Foreign Relations from 2009 to 2011 under President Ricardo Martinelli. He presided over the Panameñistas, the third-largest political party in Panama, from 2006 to 2016.
The Constitution of Costa Rica is the supreme law of Costa Rica. At the end of the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War, José Figueres Ferrer oversaw the Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly, which drafted the document. It was approved on 1949 November 7. Several older constitutions had been in effect starting from 1812, with the most recent former constitution ratified in 1871. The Costa Rican Constitution is remarkable in that in its Article 12 abolished the Costa Rican military, making it the second nation after Japan to do so by law. Another unusual clause is an amendment asserting the right to live in a healthy natural environment.
Rubén De León Sánchez is a Panamanian politician of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) who served as the President of the National Assembly of Panama from 1 July 2015 until 1 July 2017.
General elections were held in Panama on 5 May 2019. Due to constitutional term limits, incumbent President Juan Carlos Varela was ineligible for a second consecutive term. Businessman and politician Laurentino Cortizo of the centre-left Democratic Revolutionary Party won the election with around 33% of the vote, narrowly defeating Rómulo Roux of the centre-right Democratic Change, who won 31% of the vote. The PRD also won a majority in the National Assembly. The ruling Panameñista Party of President Juan Carlos Varela suffered its worst result in history. Its candidate, Panama City mayor José Isabel Blandón, received only 11% of the vote and came in fourth behind independent candidate Ricardo Lombana. The party also lost half its seats in the National Assembly.
Antonio Dominguez Richa was a Panamanian politician, businessman, and philanthropist. He was the district councilor, director of immigration of Panama, a vice deputy to the Central America Parliament, and a founding member of the Panameñista party. He was also the owner of a business that went by the name of Villa de Caracas. He was married to Carmen "Carmensita" Alvarez and had six children, including Antonio Dominguez Alvarez and Jose Antonio Dominguez.
General elections were held in Panama on 5 May 2024 to elect a new President of Panama, members of the National Assembly and local governments. Due to constitutional term limits, incumbent president Laurentino Cortizo was ineligible for a second consecutive term. The winners of the general election, including the new president of Panama, were inaugurated on 1 July.
Crispiano Adames is a politician from Panama who served as President of the National Assembly of Panama from 1 July 2021 to 1 July 2023 and Deputy of Democratic Revolutionary Party.
A series of protests began in Panama on 20 October 2023 following the immediate passing of a 20-to-40-year mining contract between the government of Panama and First Quantum Minerals, the operator of Cobre Panamá, the largest open-pit copper mine in Central America, placed 20 minutes away from the western coast of Colon Province and within a protected area of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
