PANAMA CITY - Panama elects a new president on Sunday who will inherit Latin America’s fastest-growing economy and rising pressure to reduce inequality in the financial hub that straddles two oceans.Promises to improve the lives of the rural and indigenous poor have dominated campaigning in the isthmus nation of 4 million people bisected by its famous shipping canal.
A former agricultural minister, Cortizo has wooed the country’s 2.8 million voters with promises to improve government services like water and healthcare, and fight corruption. Since the United States ousted dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, Panamanians have never given a political party back-to-back terms in office. Varela’s popularity has fallen away and his Panamenista Party’s candidate is well off the pace.
Both at home and abroad, Panama has become synonymous as a place for the rich and powerful to hide their wealth, especially since the 2016 publication of offshore financial data that became known as the Panama Papers scandal.