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{{Military
| color=#99CCFF
| country= Panama
| image= [[Image:Flag of Panama.svg|200px]] 
| caption=
| age= 85 years
| availability='''''Males age 15-49:''''' 761,568 (2000 est.)
| service='''''Males age 15-49:''''' 521,487 (2000 est.)
| reaching age='''''Males:''''' 344,575 (2005 est.)
| active= 432,800
| branches= Servicio Aereo Nacional<br>([[Air force|National Air Service]])<br>Servicio Maritimo Nacional ([[Navy|National Maritime Service]])<br>Policia Nacional<br>([[Army|National Police and Army]])
| amount= USD 132 million
| percent GDP=1.6% (FY97)
}}

[[Panama]] is one of the two countries in [[Latin America]] (the other being [[Costa Rica]]) that have permanently abolished standing military forces.  This came as a result of a US invasion that overthrew a [[military dictatorship]] which ruled the country from [[1968]] to [[1989]]. The final military dictator, Manuel Noriega, had greatly embarrassed the US president, the first George Bush, when American media exposed his long history of drug trafficking with US government knowledge. Many American conservatives had also long been hostile to Panama's military dictators because, in contrast to most Latin American dictators who favored the political right in the United States, Panama's military dictators were (at least nominally) leftists.

==History==
===The National Police===
Panama's first army was formed in [[1903]], when the commander of a brigade of the [[Colombia]]n army defected to the pro-independence side during Panama's fight for independence.  His brigade became the Panamanian army.⏎
⏎
In [[1904]], the army tried to overthrow the government, but failed.  The [[United States]] persuaded Panama that a standing army could threaten the security of the [[Panama Canal Zone]].  Instead, the country set up a "National Police."  For 48 years, this was the only armed force in Panama.

(contracted; show full)

===The Panamanian Defense Forces===

Torrijos was eventually replaced by [[Manuel Noriega]], who merged all of Panama's armed forces under his command as the '''Panamanian Defense Forces.'''  He built the PDF into a well-trained force, and further consolidated the dictatorship
 of Torrijos.  Under Noriega, the PDF was a feared tool of repression.

However, it was no match for the United States when it [[United States invasion of Panama|invaded Panama]] and overthrew Noriega in 1989.

===Panamanian Public Forces===
On [[February 10]], [[1990]] the government of then President [[Guillermo Endara]] abolished Panama's military and reformed the security apparatus by creating the Panamanian Public Forces.  In October [[1994]], Panama's Legislative Assembly approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting the creation of a standing military force, but allowing the establishment of a special temporal military to counter acts of "external aggression."  

The PPF includes the National Police, National Maritime Service, and National Air Service and an armed Institutional Protection Service or SPI for protection of public buildings.

Law enforcement units that have been separated from the public force, such as the Technical Judicial Police, also are directly subordinate to civilian authorities. The public force budget, in contrast to the former PDF, is on public record and under control of the executive.

== Further reading ==
* ''Military Foundations of Panamanian Politics,'' Robert C. Harding, Transaction Publishing, 2001.
* ''The History of Panama,'' Robert C. Harding, Greenwood Publishing, 2006.

{{North America in topic|Military of}}
{{South America in topic|Military of}}

[[Category:Military of Panama| ]]