Every day I read four or five of Costa Rica’s top Spanish newspapers in order to keep abreast with what is going on here. After all it is my job as an expert on the country to be very well informed. I also imperative for me to be able to answer questions from my clients on my monthly Costa Rica relocation/retirement tours.

In the April 30th edition of Costa Rica’s La Nación newspaper there is a good article about the current state of affairs in Panama. For some time many publications, realtors and expatriates have been hyping Panama as “the” place to retire. Some go so far as to say that it is the world’s best retirement haven. Unfortunately nothing could be farther from the truth.

According to the most recent polls forty-seven percent of all Panamanians view crime as the most pressing problem. The number of homicides has increased the last couple of years: 444 in 2007, 593 in 2008 and at the rate things are going this year the latter number will be topped. Forty-two percent of the murders have to do with drugs and fighting among local gangs.

Poverty is another issue in Panama. The country has one of the worst distributions of wealth in Latin American which helps explain why nearly 30 percent of the population is living in poverty.