When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

TOPIC: panama

Migrant Lives

A Migrant Odyssey: Haiti To Chile To Mexico's Border, And Beyond

Shella Jean was part of a new migration path from Haiti to the relatively prosperous nation of Chile. But she has since left behind her "Chilean Dream" on a perilous journey northward toward the U.S.-Mexico Border. This is her story.

I met Shella Jean in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in July 2017. The first time I saw her, she was standing next to a gas station in the blazing sun. I remember her face: the almond-shaped eyes, the thick lips, and eyebrows as thin as two strands of thread. Shella took me to her home.

We climbed a steep stone street until we reached a concrete room. It was used as a dining room during the day and a bedroom where she slept with her mother, a cousin and a nephew whom she had to take to Chile to reunite with his parents.

Indeed, accompanying her nephew was not only the mission entrusted to her by her relatives but also her chance to start a new life, away from the misery of her homeland.

Watch VideoShow less

Paradise Papers To Texas Shooting, In The Face Of Futility

-Analysis-

The headlines echo of the not-so-distant past this morning. Yesterday, media outlets around the globe began to report on the Paradise Papers, a massive leak of documents detailing the offshore investments of politicians, business tycoons, and corporations. Le Monde, which dedicated 12 journalists over the past year to the multi-outlet investigation, writes that the probe "shines a new light on the black holes of global finance."

Keep reading...Show less

Manuel 'El Man' Noriega Dead At 83, Front Page From Panama

Critica, May 30, 2017

Keep reading...Show less

Building With Bottles On A Panamanian Island

COLÓN ISLAND — As the world continues to bury itself in plastic bottles, a few pioneers are coming up with clever ways to put all that refuse to good use.

One of those people is Canadian innovator Robert Bezeau, who decided after a visit to Panama to build an entire plastic-bottle village — presumably the first of its kind — on the island of Colón, just off the Central American nation's Caribbean coast.

Keep reading...Show less
blog

How Panama's Indigenous Use Drones To Save The Rainforest

[rebelmouse-image 27090339 alt="""" original_size="1200x800" expand=1]

Panamanian holding a drone — Photo: UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Watch VideoShow less
Economy
Nicolas Richter

My Yacht, My Shell Company: Cheating, Divorce And Panama Papers

There may be only one thing super-rich men fear more than the tax authorities, and it's a wife gearing up for divorce. Panama has havens for that too.

MUNICH — The divorce of Dmitry Rybolovlev and his then wife Elena was not just spectacular melodrama, but also a textbook example of the lengths rich people (in most cases men) go to protect their considerable wealth in case of a marital breakup.

Rybolovlev, one of the richest men on the planet according to Forbes, had not only tucked away his wealth away in tax havens but tried to literally hide paintings, home furnishings and a yacht to prevent his wife from being able to lay claim to them. The internal papers of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm, document Elena Rybolovlev's lawyers' efforts to recover these items.

Watch VideoShow less
Geopolitics
Mathilde Damgé

Panama Papers, A Haven For "Regular Guys" Too

While most attention has been devoted to the VIPs and politicians cited in the leaked documents of the Panama shell-company firm, most of the people turning to tax havens look much more like you and me.

PARIS — There are heads of state, billionaires, big names in sports and show biz scattered among the more than 11 million client files of Mossack Fonseca, the firm specialized in the creation of offshore companies that is the source of massive Panama Papers leak.

But the documents also reveal that the vast majority of the names on the lists are nobody you've ever heard of: They belong to "ordinary" people who've turned to tax havens. While the Panama Papers files that Le Monde was able to consult don't always specify the sums that were transferred, thanks to offshore shell firms in places with lenient tax authorities, numerous email exchanges, official business documents and photocopies of passports flesh out a detailed portrait of the regular clientele of the Mossack Fonseca firm that is at the center of the largest leak in newspaper history. Names have been changed.

Watch VideoShow less
blog

Extra! Mexico Beats Panama In Soccer Chaos

"Sorry, Panama" reads Mexican newspaper Récord on the front page of its Thursday edition, after the chaotic and controversial 2-1 victory of Mexico over Panama in the semifinals of the Gold Cup soccer competition.

Watch VideoShow less
blog

Extra! Panama Corruption Crisis Spreads


La Estrella de Panamá, June 16, 2015

Watch VideoShow less
EL TOQUE
Marcos Troyjo

The U.S. And Brazil Need Each Other More Than Ever

-OpEd-

SAO PAULO — The just-concluded Summit of the Americas in Panama was hailed as historic because it was the first time since the gathering began that both Cuba and the United States were present. And yet, there’s plenty of room for disappointment. The gathering of heads of state could have been even more significant and made a bigger regional impact.

Watch VideoShow less