Panamanian Public Forces

The Panamanian Public Forces are the national security forces of Panama. Panama is the second country in Latin America (the other being Costa Rica) to permanently abolish standing armies, leaving it with only small para-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 been belligerent toward the USA culminating in the killing of a US Marine Lieutenant and US invasion ordered by President, George H. W. Bush. Panama maintains forces, consisting of armed Police and Security forces, and small air and maritime forces. They are tasked with law enforcement, and can perform limited military actions. Panama can create a temporary military force to counter any attack.

Read more about Panamanian Public Forces:  Organisation, Panamanian Aircraft Inventory, Maritime Forces

Famous quotes containing the words public and/or forces:

    The story is told of a man who, seeing one of the thoroughbred stables for the first time, suddenly removed his hat and said in awed tones, “My Lord! The cathedral of the horse.”
    —For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    When we are in love, the sentiment is too great to be contained whole within us; it radiates out to our beloved, finds in her a surface which stops it, forces it to return to its point of departure, and it is this rebound of our own tenderness which we call the other’s affection and which charms us more than when it first went out because we do not see that it comes from us.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)