Some love for Panama

The BBC's Will Grant has a look at the Crossroads of the Americas with Has Panama weaned itself off drugs and cleaned up?

So has Panama genuinely moved from a "narco-kleptocracy" to a peaceful and orderly democracy in just 25 years?

"It's a difficult question to answer," says Prof Orlando Perez, of Central Michigan University. "Panama's institutional system has certainly improved significantly since 1988. There is no question about that."

The credit-ratings service, Moody's Corporation, agrees. It recently described Panama's institutional strength as 'moderate' - a significant improvement on previous years and on other countries in Central America.

"[Panama] has been a success story," says Panamanian lawyer and political analyst Ebrahim Asvat.

"Since the US invasion, Panama has been able to put all the different pieces in place and try to run a country with democratic institutions and a balance of power between the different branches of government."

That said, democracy and governance in Panama are still far from perfect.

"Where I hesitate is in the question of corruption," says Prof Perez.

"Corruption is still a major problem inside Panama. To some extent it's systemic to the way Panama's economy is structured."

Panama ranks 102 out of 177 countries in the world in terms of corruption. Time to get beyond Noriega.

I just got back from New York so I should return to regular blogging tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good weekend.