PANAMA: MAJOR TOWNS AND OTHER IMPORTANT FEATURES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84S00558R000300020006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 1, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

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Ai Intelligence
Panama:
Major Towns and
Other Important Features
Secret
Secret
GI 83-10097
June 1983
Copy 468
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Panama
1 Port
-?- Internal administrative
boundary
- Railroad
Surfaced road
Unsurfaced road
0 25 50Kilor'eters
0 25 5 50 Miles
Isla Colon
.,~Bocae del Toro
ARCHIPIELAGO DE
BOCAS DEL TORO
Chiriqui Grande -B4- (400) is the Caribbean terminus
of the recently completed Trans-Panama Pipeline,
which extends to the Pacific in the vicinity of Puerto
Armuelles. Chiriqui Grande lies on the swampy
southern margin of Laguna de Chiriqui. The port
includes a small jetty and two mooring buoys with
crude-oil hoses for loading tankers. A crude-oil stor-
age area and a small airstrip are nearby.
Chitre -D7- (19,200), capital of Herrera Province, is
in the heart of the main livestock and grain region. It
is a commercial and industrial center and has the
country's largest tannery. The town is connected to
Inter-q
\~\ @ri
Divisa-Las Tablas Highway.
Colon -B8- (57,600), Panama's second-largest city
and capital of Colon Province, dates only from the
mid-19th century, when it was constructed as the
Caribbean terminus of the Panama Railroad. It be-
came physically isolated from the rest of Panama
when the Canal Zone was established around it in
1902. With no room for expansion, its population
density increased sharply. Today the city is economi-
cally depressed, congested, and crime ridden. It has a
30-percent unemployment rate, the highest in
ieee~e G Viuji
PANAMA
Vaamonte
Isla'Jtlep
Panama. Many from the city's predominantly black
population work in the Colon Free Zone; firms there
employ an estimated 5,000 workers in assembly plants
where goods that have entered duty free from abroad
are processed for distribution to South America and
the Caribbean. Cimex, a large Cuban company, and a
myraid of its subsidiaries operate in the free zone;
Cuban commercial involvement in Panama has tripled
in the past two years. Department of Defense report-
ing indicates that Ciers International (CI), a Soviet-
backed marketing firm in the free zone, is using Coco
Solo, the former US naval base east of Colon, for the
import and export of goods. A warehouse and packing
complex has been constructed by CI adjacent to the
Secret
NOFORN
port. The naval arm of the National Guard recently
transferred its Atlantic Navy Headquarters to Coco
Solo. World Bank projects in the Colon area include
expanding the free zone and upgrading the port
facilities at Coco Solo and Cristobal.
Cristobal-B8-(400), adjacent to Colon at the Carib-
bean terminus of the Panama Canal, is the country's
main port. It was formerly an administrative center
for the Panama Canal Company. The port serves the
Colon urban-industrial-commercial complex; it has
fueling and general cargo-handling facilities and ac-
cess to Panama City via highway and railroad.
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Directorate of Secret
Intelligence
Panama:
Major Towns and
Other Important Features
Information available as of 1 April 1983
has been used in the preparation of this report.
Geography Division, OGI
Office of Global Issues. Comments and queries are
welcome and may be directed to the Chief,
This paper was prepared by
Intelligence Council.
Secret
G183-10097
June 1983
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Panama:
Major Towns and
Other Important Features F7
Panama is an international crossroads of global com-
mercial and strategic significance. Moreover, because
it is located in the volatile Central American region
on established trade and travel routes between the
lucrative US drug market and South American
sources of cocaine and marijuana, it is a natural
transit point for illegal traffic in arms and narcotics.
The country's excellent communications and banking
facilities also make it an important money-laundering
center. The Cubans and the Soviets have increased
their presence in Panama in recent years, and, accord-
ing to Department of Defense reporting, are probably
using legitimate business operations in the Panama
Canal Area (formerly Panama Canal Zone) as cover
for intelligence activities
With only 2 million inhabitants, Panama is-after
Belize-the least populous Central American country.
The largest concentrations of people are at each end
of the Canal, where most of the nonagricultural
economic activity'is focused. Farming regions on the
Pacific coast and in the interior of western Panama
are less densely settled, while the humid Caribbean
lowlands, the forests of Darien, and the mountains
forming the continental divide are practically unin-
habited except for scattered Indian groups
More than two-thirds of Panama's population are
Spanish-speaking mestizos. English-speaking West
Indian blacks are prominent in Colon and in the
banana-growing region in the west. Chinese, Jewish,
and Lebanese minority groups live mainly in Panama
City and the other large urban centers.
The cities and towns listed below are the most
important in Panama. With the exceptions noted
below, figures in parentheses are population estimates
based on projections to May 1983, using data from
the Panamanian census of May 1980 and growth
rates attained during the 1970-80 intercensal period.
For the small towns of Chiriqui Grande, El Porvenir,
and Puerto Obaldia, the bases for projections are
derived from the 1970 Panamanian census; for Balboa
and Cristobal they are from 1970 US census data. No
population estimate is available for the new port of
Aguadulce -D7- (11,800) is an agricultural marking
and processing center about 45 kilometers southwest
of Penonome via the Inter-American Highway. It
serves the country's main sugar-growing region.
Nearby tidal flats are used for shrimp farming and
salt production. A small port on an estuary 5 kilome-
ters east of town handles fertilizers, chemicals, and
the area's sugar and molasses exports.
Almirante -B3- (4,800), on Bahia Almirante in north-
western Panama, is a deepwater port with berthing
for oceangoing vessels. Operated under concession by
the US-owned United Brands Company, it exports
bananas and other agricultural products. The port is
served by a rail line, also run by United Brands, and
by a two-lane all-weather road, which was recently
completed to the Costa Rican border. Department of
Defense reporting indicates that cross-border traffic
on the road is not even monitored, much less con-
trolled
Balboa -B9- (2,600), the Pacific port of entry to the
Panama Canal, is the second-largest of the Canal-
area towns. It was ceded to Panama by the United
States in 1979. The port has facilities for handling
bulk petroleum and grain, containers, and general
cargo, as well as for ship repair and refueling. Accord-
ing to US Embassy reporting, representatives of the
Soviet and Cuban fishing fleets are seeking regular
access to the drydocks; these facilities, formerly run
by the Panama Canal Company, are now operated by
a French-Panamanian consortium
Bocas del Toro -B3- (2,500), capital of remote,
sparsely populated Bocas del Toro Province, is situat-
ed on Isla Colon, an offshore island. It is a minor
commercial center and cargo transfer point for the
local banana and fishing industries.
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Puerto Armuelles -D2- (12,600), serves as a market
center and port for Chiriqui Province's banana-
producing region. The port is given over almost
exclusively to banana exports and is operated under
concession by a subsidiary of United Brands, which
also operates the rail line serving the port. The
Government of Panama has devised a tax-incentive
plan designed to maintain existing levels of United
Brand's Pacific Coast operations, following layoffs
and the closure in late 1982 of the government-owned
Banana Corporation of the Pacific. The western ter-
minus of the new transisthmus oil pipeline, a deepwa-
ter port capable of handling large oil tankers, is about
10 kilometers south of Puerto Armuelles.
Puerto Obaldia -C14- (600) is a village on the Carib-
bean coast near the Colombian frontier. Most of the
inhabitants are blacks. Cuna Indian territory begins
about 20 kilometers to the northwest. US Embassy
reports indicate that increased policing of other routes
of marijuana trafficking out of Colombia has led to
the use of Puerto Obaldia as a storage and transit
point for drug shipments to the United States and
elsewhere. According to Department of Defense re-
porting, a recent investigation by National Guard
officials revealed that the entire Guard detachment at
this small port was involved in drug smuggling and
other contraband activities.
Puerto Pilon -B9- (5,700) is a small port on an inlet
about 10 kilometers east of Colon. Nearby is the
nation's only petroleum refinery. Port facilities adja-
cent to the refinery's storage terminals are equipped
primarily to supply the refinery, but they also handle
general cargo. They have recently been adapted to
serve the fast-growing roll-on/roll-off trade. The town
is linked by a road to the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway.
Santiago -D6- (25,400), on the Inter-American High-
way midway between Panama City and the Costa
Rican border, is the capital of Veraguas Province and
one of the oldest towns in the country. It serves as a
commercial center for the surrounding cattle and
sugarcane region. The nearby government-owned La
Victoria Sugar Mill provides employment for a large
number of workers in this traditionally economically
depressed province. The US Agency for International
Development is implementing a pilot fish-farming
project in the highlands, which will involve 20
communities.
Vacamonte -C9-, about 30 kilometers southwest of
Panama City, is a fishing port that was constructed
with World Bank assistance and opened in 1979. It is
used primarily by shrimp trawlers. According to US
Embassy reports, Vacamonte serves as the home base
for Cuba's Pacific fishing fleet; its warehouses are
reportedly used in the illegal export of Cuban seafood
to the United States. The port includes transshipment,
cold storage, and ship repair facilities. Plans to ex-
pand it to allow for offloading of grain and loading of
sugar and molasses and for the development of a tuna
industry have been shelved. This will at least tempo-
rarily thwart a rumored plan to shift part of the Soviet
fishing fleet to Vacamonte from Peru.
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The Inter-American Highway extends almost 800
kilometers from the Costa Rican border to Yaviza in
Darien Province, about 55 kilometers from the Co-
lombian border. Concrete surfacing has been com-
pleted over the entire western portion and as far east
of the Canal as Chepo; beyond Chepo are gravel and
earth segments passable in conventional passenger
vehicles. Construction of the final section of the
highway across the Darien Gap, which would link
Central and South America, is now in doubt; US
funding was suspended in 1976 because of legal and
environmental considerations. There is concern that
completion of the highway would lead to the north-
ward spread of foot-and-mouth disease and to the
destruction of one of the world's most species-rich
tropical forests. US Embassy officials believe that the
highway might also facilitate the northward move-
ment of narcotics and illegal aliens
The Boyd-Roosevelt Highway, 44 kilometers in length,
is the main north-south route. It connects the ports,
naval bases, and population centers of Cristobal-
Colon and Balboa-Panama City. Branch roads link
most of the military installations in the former Canal
Zone to this route; the highway intersects the Inter-
American Highway at Panama City. Traffic volume
has steadily increased in recent years, causing deterio-
ration of the roadway and heavy congestion during
peak periods.
The Divisa-Las Tablas Highway connects the provin-
cial capitals of Chitre and Las Tablas with the Inter-
American Highway at Divisa. It carries the third-
heaviest volume of traffic in the country after the
Inter-American and Transisthmus Highways. In-
creased use has caused a steady deterioration. The
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Government of Panama plans to upgrade the road;
improvements will include widening and the construc-
tion of drainage works and bridges.
The Panama Railroad, paralleling the Canal, links
Panama City and Colon. It is described in a recent
Department of Defense information report as "the
railroad that nobody wants." The line is in poor
condition, and service has deteriorated under Pana-
manian administration. The Panama Canal Treaty
states that, if the Republic of Panama decides that its
continued operation of the railroad is no longer viable,
the United States shall have the right to reassume its
management and operation.
The Trans-Panama Pipeline enables oil to be trans-
ferred between very large tankers, too wide to transit
the Canal, in the Pacific and the Caribbean across
130 kilometers of western Panama. It began opera-
tions in 1982. Maximum design throughput volume is
800,000 barrels a day. The pipeline provides an
important alternative to the Panama Canal for the
movement of Alaskan crude oil, enhancing US energy
security. It is also a strategic target, vulnerable to
sabotage
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The Panama Canal, a US-built 80-kilometer inter-
oceanic waterway completed in 1914, is one of the
world's major shipping arteries. Three sets of locks lift
transiting vessels over the continental divide. The
capacity of the locks limits the size of vessels that can
pass through the Canal-many ore carriers and very
large oil tankers cannot be accommodated. The locks
are vulnerable to sabotage, earthquakes, and other
hazards, making the facility a potential major global
chokepoint. Under the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977,
the Canal Zone reverted to Panamanian jurisdiction
in 1979, but the United States retains responsibility
for operation of the Canal and, with Panama, for its
defense until the year 2000.
Omar Torrijos (formerly Tocumen) International Air-
port, about 25 kilometers northeast of Panama City,
is a major transit point for air freight and passenger
traffic between North and South America. A new
terminal building and runway were completed in
1978. The Panamanian Air Force is headquartered at
The Archipielago de las Perlas -C 10- is a cluster of
mountainous islands in the Gulf of Panama about 75
kilometers southeast of Panama City. Most of the
more than 200 islands are tiny and uninhabited; the
largest, Isla del Rey, supports a fishing village. Isla
Contadora, although much smaller, is famous as the
island to which the ailing Shah of Iran fled in 1979; it
has been turned into a multimillion-dollar govern-
ment-supported tourist complex with an excellent
airstrip and scheduled flights to Panama City. In
colonial times the surrounding waters were exploited
for pearls; today they attract sports fishermen.
Isla de Coiba -E4-, in the Pacific about 25 kilome-
ters off the mainland, is the largest of Panama's
islands. It has been the site of a penal colony since
1919. Prisoners are housed in a main camp and in
several smaller camps scattered about the 1,550-
square-kilometer island.
Isla Taboga -C9- is a small island in the Gulf of
Panama about 10 kilometers from the mainland.
Once notorious as a pirate stronghold, it is now a
tourist attraction and a favorite resort for residents of
Panama City and Balboa. The island produces pine-
apples and mangoes and has the second-oldest church
in the Western Hemisphere. Regular launch service
links Taboga with Balboa.
Lago Gatun -B8- was created during the construction
of the Panama Canal by damming the Rio Chagres.
The lake provides water for the Canal's locking
system and forms a considerable part of the waterway
itself. Isla Barro Colorado, the largest of a number of
islands scattered through the lake, has been used for
many years by the Smithsonian Institution as a
biological research center.
Volcan Baru -C3- , near the Costa Rican border,
forms the highest peak in Panama. It rises to an
elevation of 3,473 meters.
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Planned World Bank projects will repair the conven-
tional cargo facilities and expand the roll-on/roll-off
and paved container-storage areas
David -C3- (57,300), the nation's third-largest city, is
the capital of agriculturally rich Chiriqui Province. It
is a commercial and industrial hub on the Inter-
American Highway about 55 kilometers from the
Costa Rican border. Just south of town is Enrique
Malek Airport; jet fuel is trucked in from Pedregal, a
minor port 5 kilometers farther south on an inlet of
the Golfo de Chiriqui. Development of a hydroelectric
complex, a sugar mill, an oil transshipment facility
near Puerto Armuelles, and a transisthmus oil pipe-
line have brought money to the region and led to the
economic expansion of David. Some of the big pro-
jects are now completed, however, and unemployment
is becoming a problem. In the less prosperous eastern
part of Chiriqui, the local Guaymi Indians have been
progressively pushed off the better farmland into arid,
eroded, and mountainous terrain. Chiriqui is noted for
its fierce independence and its resentment of central
government control; many attempted coups have be-
gun here
lEl Porvenir -A10- (200), on an islet of the same name,
serves as capital of the Comarca de San Blas, a
semiautonomous region comprising most of the east-
ern part of Panama's Caribbean coast. The territory is
sparsely inhabited, mainly by some 25,000 Cuna (also
known as San Blas) Indians. A small airport at El
Porvenir accommodates light planes. On the mainland
nearby at Mandinga is another small airport, which
was recently equipped with landing lights
The US defense attache reports that the
latter airstrip is suspected of serving as a transship-
ment point for weapons bound for subversives in
South and Central America. The Comarca de San
Blas is notorious for its role in smuggling between
Panama and Colombia; lack of firm government
control and the independent attitude of the Indians
makes San Blas ideal for illegal trade in drugs and
other contraband.
La Chorrera -C9- (42,000), Panama's fourth-largest
city, stretches along the Inter-American Highway
about 30 kilometers west of the Canal. It is the
commercial and marketing center for a coffee-,
grain-, and orange-growing region. Because of its
proximity to Panama City and to the Canal, where
many of its inhabitants are employed, La Chorrera
has grown rapidly.
La Palma-D12-(1,600) is the capital of sparsely
populated, largely undeveloped Darien Province. It is
situated near the broad mouth of the Rio Tuira, which
flows into a small gulf opening to the Gulf of Panama.
The town is linked to the Inter-American Highway at
Yaviza by an unpaved road. An airfield southeast of
town is used by light aircraft. La Palma is a departure
point for travel to the interior of Darien. Marijuana
from Colombia is smuggled into Darien on a small
scale farther south, especially in and around the
coastal village of Jaque. Elements of the National
Guard based in La Palma are rotated for patrol duty
along the border,
Las Tablas -E8- (5,800) is the capital of Los Santos
Province, a region of cattle ranches and small farms in
the southeastern portion of the Peninsula de Azuero
on the Pacific coast. Milk produced in Los Santos
supplies processing centers in Cocle Province. Roads
radiate in all directions from Las Tablas. A paved
highway connects it with Chitre, and another goes to
Puerto Mensabe, a minor port on the Gulf of Panama.
Abundant quantities of red snapper, discovered off
the coast in 1980, are being processed at Pedasi, about
40 kilometers southeast of Las Tablas. About 10
kilometers north of town is a small airstrip.
Panama City -B9- (401,600), the nation's capital and
most important city, serves as a focal point for
international commerce and finance. Spain estab-
lished the city as a base for exploration in the New
World and as a collecting point for Europe-bound
goods. It was founded on its present site in 1673 after
buccaneer Henry Morgan sacked the old town, now
known as Panama la Vieja, about 7 kilometers to the
east. Most of the city is modern; the old quarter and
Panama la Vieja are both being extensively restored.
San Miguelito, a distrito adjacent to and north of the
city has an additional 200,000 or more people. Indus-
tries in and around Panama City include food process-
ing, steel rolling, and the manufacture of clothing,
shoes, and furniture.
Penonome -C7- (8,500), capital of largely rural Cocle
Province, is a regional agricultural market on the
Inter-American Highway. To the south is an inten-
sively cultivated, irrigated, rice-producing area. Mod-
ern technology produces high yields, and most of the
production goes to the large cities in the vicinity of the
Canal. Penonome is the site of an ancient advanced
Indian culture that archeologists theorize may have
been destroyed by volcanic eruptions.
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