Country in Central America bordering
Colombia on the south and
Costa Rica on the north. It was part of Colombia until
1903, which was when the
United States, having decided on a good location for a canal from the
Atlantic Ocean through to the
Pacific Ocean, started supporting the revolutionary organizations in Panama which wanted independence. The U.S. continued to hold the area around the canal, and interfere a lot in Panama to protect the canal, throughout the 1900s, including the
1989 invasion where the country's effective ruler
Manuel Noriega was taken to the US and tried for
drug trafficking (he was sentenced to 40 years in prison in
1992). As of
January 1, 2000, the Canal Zone has been returned to Panama, to their great happiness.