Panama is a narrow land bridge connecting North and South America. The Panama Canal, built by the United States after Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903, joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1989 U.S. troops overthrew Gen. Manuel Noriega, following his indictment for complicity in drug trafficking. Panama's first woman president, Mireya Moscoso, was elected in 1999—the same year that her country assumed full control of the Panama Canal.
ECONOMYIndustry: food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, textiles.
Agriculture: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton; beef, veal.
Exports: coffee, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco, bananas.Text source:
National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004
