PANAMA CITY


I came down to Panama for a few days and can report that it’s a good antidote to global economic blues: the capital is one big high-rise construction site and although the boom is ebbing, it has staying power. There will be growth of perhaps 3 percent this year, a number the United States will envy.

A couple of prosperous lawyers told me over lunch that Panama could thank Hugo Chavez, George W.Bush and Osama bin Laden for its good fortune. Chavez and his leftist cronies elsewhere in Latin America have led many people to seek a safe haven for their capital, but tighter, post-9/11 American visa and other restrictions mean they’re less inclined to park funds in Miami. So money flows to Panama City.

Alas, there’s nothing uplifting about the construction - one ugly tower after another. But then Panama’s always been a place of traders and wheelerdealers more interested in a fast buck than a pretty facade. Think of it as a kind of seedier Singapore.

During my stay, one of the yachts - actually it looks more like a luxury destroyer - of the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was docked off the coast. He’s lost an estimated $6 billion in the current meltdown, but that’s pocket change for him. The boat has two helipads, one for himself, one for guests. What self-respecting vessel has only one helipad?

Panama is a meeting-place, hence the traders. It offers the only shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Canal is about to get a $5.5 billion revamp that will broaden it and help sustain the economy as long as global warming doesn’t open a Northern passage.

I’ve been thinking about the Canal in connection with Barack Obama’s new presidency, because a previous Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, made Panama a centerpiece of his diplomacy.

Carter’s 1977 agreement with General Omar Torrijos to hand control of the canal to Panama was a surprising game-changer that altered perceptions of the United States in the hemisphere. The overbearing“Yanqui,”who had trained many a ruthless Latin American general at Panama’s infamous School of the Americas, was capable of compromise.

Latin America comes low on an Obama priority list dominated by the devastated United States economy (an estimated $12 trillion in household wealth has been lost) and two wars. But the Administration would be wrong to neglect the area. Pending free-trade agreements with both Panama and Colombia should be approved by Congress.

For Obama, Cuba offers some potential for a breakthrough of Panama- Canal-like dimensions. The American trade embargo has long outlived its usefulness. In increased contacts lies the best hope for bringing gradual change in Havana.

Martin Torrijos, the current centerleft president, is the son of the man with whom Carter made his historic deal.

He has played a useful intermediary role in the region, easing tensions between Venezuela and Colombia. His former chief spokesman, Jorge Sanchez, said,“Chavez’s radicalism fed on the radicalism of Bush and high oil prices. A change of tone in Washington is going to leave Chavez weakened.”

Chavez has occupied the imagination of the region, whether as hero or ogre; Obama remains nebulous. He needs to think of a Carter-to-Panama grand gesture.