Panama Facts--What Panama Will Never Tell You by:Aurelia Masterson
Assets Not So Safe in Panama There is a way to get a court order in Panama from a Panama Court to garnish, lien or levy a Panama Bank account
. If you do not know where the persons bank is you can have the court send a Fax to all the banks in Panama asking them to seize, lien, levy any bank account associated with the name of the person as a beneficiary owner or signatory. This is called a sequestro.Will this include foundation or corporate accounts too? It might, depends on the case and the court. The plaintiff will have to post a 10% to 15% deposit on the amount to be attached. If the defendant prevails in court this deposit can go to the defendant. It may also take months or years to get your money back. This could destroy your business and your personal finances and even bankrupt you all based on just allegations.
Civil Law Suit Games in Panama If you are in a civil fight in Panama the adversary can post a bond of say 10% to 15% of the cash value of an asset and have it seized. This is called an embargo. It goes to storage until the case is decided in court. Time frame is usually three years or longer. This has been used to take the personal contents out of a persons home including the beds, furniture, TV, computers, linen, towels, dishes, firearms, jewelry etc. There are no exempt items except medicine and some necessary medical equipment as a possible exemption.
So think if they take all your furniture, refrigerator, clothes, beds etc and also lien your bank accounts what are you going to do? They could also garnish a car or a boat this way and put it into storage. What a nice court system. Asset protection in Panama has a lot of problems. If you do not live or operate a business in Panama the risks are lower but still there.
Preventive Detention If you are charged with a crime in Panama you can be arrested and held in preventive detention until the trial, figure three years. If you are a foreigner unlikely to return if allowed to leave, you will not be able to post a bond. Having a pensionado or residency status does not mean you are not foreigner. A Panamanian citizen is not a foreigner, and pensionado or residency status is a foreigner.
If you are a Panamanian with roots and family in Panama you can generally post a bond to avoid preventive detention if in fact they even get to considering preventive detention. It is guilty until proven innocent. Preventive detention has better conditions than regular jail but it is still jail. They do not give you health care coverage in jail. Think about your health if your money runs out and you are still in jail.
Search Warrants The police in Panama do not need a search warrant for any reason to search anything. This can include your home, your person, your car, your vault box, your business etc. Ok if you trust the government, I guess.
Crime of Passion If you catch your spouse with another person being intimate you can kill one or both of them as a crime of passion and not be prosecuted. The crime must happen as soon as you catch them. You cannot like go to a friends house, get a gun and return in that this would be premeditative. You could do this with a girlfriend or boyfriend but could be more risky than with a spouse. So you can get away with murder in Panama.
Gun Rights You can get permission to own and or carry a gun in Panama as a permanent resident or pensionado. It takes most people three years to get a permanent residency so what do you do for the year years. Panama has a high crime rate. To get a gun you need to supply DNA from blood. Then the gun goes in for ballistic sampling. Process can take several months. Who do they share your DNA with? There have been some close calls regarding people losing many of their gun rights. Something that can happen at any time completely or in a diminishing capacity.
Panama Residencies Panama has no clear or easy path to citizenship. The law reads that after one has a permanent residency for five years they can apply for citizenship. On average this is granted to about 2 people a year. It usually takes 2-3 years to get permanent residency. Your residency card cannot be used to open bank accounts; they still want your passport from the home country. These residencies are treated as long-term visas in reality. If the conditions used to obtain the residency change your residency can be cancelled even though they call it a permanent residency do not be so sure about it. If you marry a Panamanian you get a permanent residency but if you divorce you lose your residency status.
Other countries treat permanent residents almost like a citizen without voting rights. Not Panama. You will need your passport from the home country for everything legal like opening bank accounts, signing leases, buying a house, writing a check, buying a car, boat, etc. Your residency or pensionado card is not considered to be a valid ID by most. Panama has the absolute hardest and tightest immigration laws anywhere in Central or South America. Every country has a direct real path to citizenship but Panama.
Crime in Panama Panama used to be a safe country. This changed by 2008. It is not a safe country anymore. You hear of ATM robberies, kidnappings, home invasions, burglaries, and street crime. You wake up in the morning and read all about the drug busts, which seem to be never ending. Then you read of people caught at the airport with a few million dollars in the luggage, undeclared of course. The drug traffickers kill each other with regularity. They are found dead in their palatial condos with a bullet in the head. They get shot in the street.
Once on via Espana near the big church in 2008 across the street from the Crowne Plaza there was a typical drug execution. A drug type walked out to his car and two guys came up on a motorcycle and sprayed about forty rounds at him in broad daylight. Bullets hit the buildings. Women standing there were traumatized as they saw the body dancing from the impact of the bullets. The shooters then drove away on the motorcycle blowing kisses at the crowd like an opera singer. They were never caught, as far as I know.
There were several different drug related shootings in front of a big El Cangrejo hotel in a period of two or three months. People get home invaded in private homes and sometimes in new condos with security. Suspects are usually the security guards. They tie the people up, beat them, force them to open safes, rape is optional. Women are afraid to go to the malls due to people jumping in the car with them and doing who knows what. Panama crime is now up there with any third world country.
Street Beggars They are there and lots of them. They can get aggressive, hang on cars windows, if they get their hand in the car try to force window down, try to clean your windshield. They will be more aggressive with a foreigner trying to get more of a handout from a foreigner.
Police in Panama Well they are present. You will soon be annoyed at their roadblocks. They look in car and check papers. It soon becomes a real pain. They go to restaurant and tourist districts at night and check peoples papers. Used to be a foreigner could stay in Panama for years with an expired visa, now off to immigration jail. Fines and then you leave. If they see a crime being committed they will engage the perpetrators. They will not turn a blind eye. If they do not see the crime being committed it is a safe bet they will never catch anyone.
Their investigative resources leave a lot to be desired and they move slowly. They do not have sophisticated labs or crime scene analysis. If you are experiencing a break in and call, well I think one way or the other it will be over before they arrive, if they ever arrive. Forget calling if you do not speak Spanish. Always make sure you know who you are opening the door for even in a condo with security. They corrupt someones maid to buzz them into a building and then try to get into several homes. Homes invasions are traumatizing to say the least. Make sure your maid does not set you up by leaving the back door open, losing her key etc.
Fire Department Their fire department has no equipment to do anything about a fire in a big high rise. They may be able to get up maybe 15 or 18 floors but higher than that you better have your own way out. They are not going to come in and get you if you are up 35 floors. What if you are 50 floors up?
Ambulance If you are not a citizen you are not entitled to use their ambulances. Take a cab, drive yourself or walk. If you happen to be bleeding out try direct pressure. If you cannot walk not sure what to tell you. You could get a private ambulance service, not cheap and you pay by the month not by the call.
Hospitals They probably are not going to take your health care insurance if from a foreign country. You may be able to get reimbursed but it probably will not work for payment to the health care provider. If you go to the ER to see a doctor you pay before you go in for the ER visit. Then the doctor evaluates you and orders tests etc and then you pay a second time. Same thing if you are there with two broken legs. No credit card or cash, no treatment. They do not have to take you in. If you are a citizen then you go to a public hospital for free. Please note all the funeral parlors and hearses across the street from the public hospitals.
Real Estate Crash Panama real estate used to have stable prices, say in 2005 and before. In 2006 they started to creep up. Prime real estate was $1000 a sq meter. In 2008 at peak same real estate was selling for $3500 to $4000 a meter. They started to build a massive amount of condos. The thought was they could get prices up to $8000 a sq. meter or even $10,000. This didnt work.
Did they do anything wrong? You bet. They over built. Many of the projects failed and are little more than holes in the ground now never to be completed. Many projects cancelled. The govt also saw fit to tighten up the immigration laws making the already bad laws even worse. Of course this encouraged the real estate crash. It is felt the next round of price drops will be severe. When it is over real estate will return to $1000 a sq. meter or perhaps lower. Panama has bad weather. Hot and humid nine months a year. The traffic is so bad it land locked. Parking is getting worse.
The rainy season is seven months. There is a lot of water to look at in Panama City but it is polluted and you cannot swim in it. There is no useable beach in Panama City. Electric bills in the wealthy neighborhoods run about 10 times higher than where the poor folks live. Expect high utility bills. There used to be good views from the condos. Now you are going to see the neighboring buildings and watch them look into your condo. Also the people on the floors above you can see into your condo. No privacy. Leave your windows open a few hours a day and then you get to clean the black soot off of the floors.
Maids A large amount of the maids are dishonest. They steal. They steal bulk foods, makeup, clothes, jewelry, lots of things. There is a maid shortage so their wages are up high. They get one-month vacation after 11 months of work. Nice. They get about 18 or 19 holidays in addition each year. When was the last time you had six or seven weeks paid vacation a year. Does this tell you why there is almost no manufacturing in Panama? They get sick days. If you fire them or they quit, expect it to cost you some money. They almost automatically take you to the labor department. You will lose; only thing you can do is control damages.
You need to take the employment agreement to them for approval when hiring. When you fire them, you go back to labor board and get them to approve settlement pay. Guaranteed to make you pull your hair out. Many phone rooms came to panama and got busted out by the insane socialist labor laws. The owners get sick and tired of getting dragged to the labor board by bad and dishonest workers. Maids will rob from you and then take you to the labor board. Report this police. Do not go to labor board hearing. Tell labor board police are looking for the maid and to call them if she shows up, and they will.
Gringo Pricing If you are obviously not a local they will raise prices on you. If you speak Spanish this will not help. If you use your driver or other person to help you they will tell the store they want 10% or they will tell their client to shop elsewhere. Panama has been dealing with foreigners since 1913 and they are extremely good at fleecing them. Panamanians have an unspoken code and stick together against foreigners, always. They are never really your friends, you just think they are.
Drug Use in Panama Drugs are there and maybe 1/10 the price in North America and EU. They have drug tourists who come there, rent a house, buy bulk quantities of drugs and then invite their friends down for extended drug binges. They are in Bocas del Toro and other places. They risk big jail sentences but since they are just users they will probably just get thrown out of country after they say where they got the drugs.
Prostitutes - Prostitution is a legal activity in Panama. You will see prostitutes on the streets. You will see mens clubs and so forth. If you are a married couple make sure the wife knows about this before coming.
Outside Panama City This is full blown third world. Only the city is modern.
Summary Panama used to be safe, no more. Panama used to be cheap, no more. Panama used to have easy immigration, no more. Panama used to leave people alone and let them do what they want especially in business, no more. Labor used to be cheap in Panama, no more. There are a lot of central and South American Countries where you can do better.
Gun Rights You can get permission to own and or carry a gun in Panama as a permanent resident or pensionado. It takes most people three years to get a permanent residency so what do you do for the year years. Panama has a high crime rate. To get a gun you need to supply DNA from blood. Then the gun goes in for ballistic sampling. Process can take several months. Who do they share your DNA with? There have been some close calls regarding people losing many of their gun rights. Something that can happen at any time completely or in a diminishing capacity.
-Aurelia Masterson, http://www.panamalaw.org
About the author
Aurelia Masterson is an associate of Panama Legal law firm (http://www.panamalaw.org). She has years of experience in the field and now shares her observations of current events, politics, and law with the Internet community. She can be contacted at: aurelia@panamalaw.org. How to Start a Food Business/Plan Review Prep by:David Arts It's Easier to buy a $5,000,000 Apartment Building That A Single Family Investment Property by:Joe Florentine How to Lose a Prospects Attention Quickly and Easily by:Kelley Robertson Real Estate Investment Strategies: Options by:Kevin Sullivan What Is A Trusted Debt Consolidation Agency? Foolproof Your Business Start-Up, New Business Considerations and Get Funding Too by:Leon Edward Know Which Glass is Yours and Take a Friend to Lunch by:Mary Lee Gannonb Live The Simple Life And Eliminate The Debt In Your Life by:Jane Bennett Do You Really Need the Services of a Loan Modification Company? by:Bridget Toomey How To Play The Stock Market With The Day Trading Robot by:Jackson Stone Building Trust is What it is All About by:Shaun Edwards The Selling Process by:Moses Isaac Stop Foreclosure Fast - Access Your Options by:Alfredo Morris