Panamanian Public Forces |
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Panamanian Coat of arms
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Service branches |
Panamanian National Police |
Leadership | |
Commander-in-Chief | Juan Carlos Varela |
Minister of Public Security |
Alexis Bethancourt Yau |
Manpower | |
Active personnel | 30,000 active (as of 2016) 50,000 part-time and reserve agents |
Expenditures | |
Budget | USD 481 million (2011) |
Panamanian National Police
National Border Service
Institutional Protection Service
The Panamanian Public Forces (Spanish: Fuerza Pública de la República de Panamá) 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, with Panama retaining a small para-military security force. This came as a result of a U.S. invasion that overthrew a military dictatorship which ruled Panama from 1968 to 1989. The final military dictator, Manuel Noriega, had been belligerent toward the U.S. culminating in the killing of a U.S. Marine lieutenant and U.S. invasion ordered by U.S. President George H. W. Bush.