ALMA SOLÍS

Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli waves to supporters during a campaign rally, in Panama City, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera, File)
Panamanian ex-leader Martinelli remains in the Nicaraguan Embassy after window to leave expired
Panama’s ex-President Ricardo Martinelli remains inside the Nicaraguan Embassy more than a year after he first entered and a week after Panama said it would allow him to leave. Martinelli is a convicted felon granted asylum by Nicaragua.
 
Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli waves to supporters during a campaign rally, in Panama City, Feb. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera, File)
Ex-President Martinelli gets Panama’s permission to take asylum in Nicaragua
Panama Foreign Affairs Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez says that Ex-Panama President Ricardo Martinelli will be allowed to leave the Nicaraguan embassy where he’s been holed up for more than a year to travel to Nicaragua.
 
The thermoelectric plant of the Cobre Panama copper mine, owned by Canada's First Quantum Minerals, in Donoso, Panama, Friday, March 21, 2025, during a media tour of the mine that was closed after Panama's Supreme Court ruled that the government concession was unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama reopens talks about the future of a controversial copper mine, but opposition remains
More than a year after Panama’s Supreme Court halted operations at a huge copper mine because its government concession was deemed unconstitutional, there’s a fresh push with the new Panamanian president to restart the mine.
 
Migrants, mostly from Asian countries, arrived in Panama City on Saturday, March 8, 2025, after spending weeks in a temporary Panamanian immigration camp following their deportation from the U.S. and being released on the condition that they leave the country within 30 days. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama releases dozens of detained deportees from US into limbo following human rights criticism
Panama has released dozens of migrants deported from the United States who were held for weeks in a remote camp on the condition that they would leave the Central American nation in 30 days.
 
Venezuelan migrants returning from southern Mexico after giving up on reaching the U.S. rest on the street in Panama City, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama to allow 112 migrants deported from the US to move about freely in the country
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Ábrego says Panama will begin the process of issuing humanitarian passes to 112 migrants deported from the United States who have been held in a remote camp in the Darien region since last month.
 
Panama exasperated over persistence of US allegations of Chinese control of canal
Panama’s president has said that he instructed the country’s foreign minister to not discuss the U.S. government’s allegations of Chinese interference in the operations of the Panama Canal with the visiting head of U.S. Southern Command.
 
Panama's President Jose Mulino, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrive for a meeting at the presidential palace in Panama City, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
US deports 119 migrants from a variety of nations to Panama
Panama’s president has said his country has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants.
 
Cranes load and unload containers from cargo ships at the Cristobal port, operated by the Panama Ports Company, in Colon, Panama, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Panama’s president denies making a deal that US warships can transit the canal for free
Panama President José Raúl Mulino has rejected the U.S. State Department’s claim that his country had reached a deal allowing U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free. Mulino said Thursday he had told U.S.
 
Cargo ships wait to transit the Panama Canal in Panama City, on June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
Panama’s president says there will be no negotiation about ownership of canal
Panama President José Raúl Mulino says there will be no negotiation with the United States over ownership of the Panama Canal. He also says that he hopes U.S.
 
Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez addresses President-elect Donald Trump's suggestion that the U.S. should retake control of the Panama Canal during an interview with Associated Press in his office Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Panama City, Panama. (AP Photo/Abraham Terán)
Panama Canal administrator pushes back against Trump’s assertions of Chinese meddling
The administrator of the Panama Canal has responded to criticisms from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, denying that there is any interference from China in the canal’s operations and saying giving special privileges to any nation would only cause problems.
 
Children in El Jobo village play in the Indio River, which could have its flow reduced under a proposed plan to secure the Panama Canal’s uninterrupted operation in Panama, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal’s water supply
The Panama Canal Authority is reaching out to communities that could be impacted if the Indio River is dammed to make a new reservoir ensuring the water supply needed to operate the Panama Canal.
 
FILE - Panamanian President-elect Jose Raul Mulino speaks with a Venezuelan migrant, left, and other migrants at a camp after they walked across the Darien Gap from Colombia, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, June 28, 2024. Mulino said on Thursday, July 18, 2024, that migrants entering Panama through the Darien Gap will only be sent back to their countries if they agree to do so. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
Panama president says repatriation of migrants crossing the Darien Gap will be voluntary
Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino says that migrants entering Panama through the treacherous Darien Gap will only be sent back to their countries if they agree to do so, potentially diminishing the impact of stricter immigration enforcement Mulino had pushed.
 
Gunmen open fire on students at a rural University of Panama campus, killing 1 and wounding another
Two unidentified gunmen have opened fire on a group of students on a rural campus of the University of Panama, killing one and wounding another before escaping.
 
FILE - Migrants cross a river during their journey through the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama, hoping to reach the U.S., Oct. 15, 2022. President-elect José Raúl Mulino said Thursday, May 9, 2024, he will shut down the migration route used by more than 500,000 people last year. Until now, Panama has helped speedily bus the migrants across its territory so they can continue their journey north. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes
Panama is on the verge of a dramatic change to its immigration policy that could reverberate from the dense Darien jungle to the U.S. border.
 
FILE - Ramon Fonseca speaks during an interview at his office in Panama City, April 7, 2016. Fonseca, a partner in the Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of the “Panama Papers” scandal over the hiding of wealth in offshore entities, has died, a lawyer from his firm confirmed Thursday, May 9, 2024. He was 71. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco, File)
Ramón Fonseca, partner in firm at center of “Panama Papers” scandal, dies
Ramón Fonseca, a partner in the Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of the “Panama Papers” scandal, has died. Lawyer Guillermina McDonald confirmed to The Associated Press in a phone message that Fonseca died late Wednesday.
 
FILE - Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli speaks to supporters during a campaign rally, in Panama City, Feb. 3, 2024. Panamanian authorities on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, ordered the arrest of Martinelli, who has been holed up in the Nicaraguan Embassy since receiving political asylum from that country earlier this month. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera, File)
Panama’s judiciary orders arrest of ex-president holed up in Nicaragua’s embassy
Panamanian authorities have ordered the arrest of former President Ricardo Martinelli who has been holed up in the Nicaraguan Embassy since receiving political asylum from that country earlier this month.
 
Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli speaks to supporters during a campaign rally, in Panama City, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. Panama's Supreme Court, on Friday, denied an appeal from Martinelli, convicted of money laundering in the case of a media company he purchased, likely ending his re-election bid. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Uncertainty surrounding former president Ricardo Martinelli roils Panama’s presidential race
Not a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering nor going into political asylum in Nicaragua’s embassy have softened the political aspirations of Panama’s former President Ricardo Martinelli who still seeks to retake that position.
 
Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli speaks to supporters during a campaign rally, in Panama City, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. Panama's Supreme Court, on Friday, denied an appeal from Martinelli, convicted of money laundering in the case of a media company he purchased, likely ending his re-election bid. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Panama ex-President Ricardo Martinelli receives political asylum from Nicaragua
Panama’s former President Ricardo Martinelli has received political asylum from Nicaragua days after the country’s Supreme Court denied his appeal over a money laundering conviction that carried a 10-year sentence.
 
Panama Supreme Court lets ex-President Martinelli’s sentence stand, likely ending his reelection bid
Panama’s Supreme Court has denied an appeal from former President Ricardo Martinelli, convicted of money laundering in the case of a media company he purchased.