Panamanian Public Forces

Panamanian Public Forces
Panamanian Coat of arms
Service branches	Panamanian National Police National Border Service Institutional Protection Service National Aeronaval Service
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Juan Carlos Varela
Minister of Public Security	Alexis Bethancourt Yau
Manpower
Active personnel	30,000 (as of 2016)
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.