Central America Nicaragua Panama Honduras

Country Size ► Panama - slightly smaller than South Carolina  total: 78,200 sq km, water: 2,210 sq km, land: 75,990 sq km ► Nicaragua – between Honduras and Costa Rica  total: 129,494 sq km, water: 9,240 sq km, land: 120,254 sq km ► Honduras – slightly larger than Tennessee  total: 112,090 sq km, water: 200 sq km land: 111,890

Population (July 2003 est.) ► Panama - 2,960,784 ► Nicaragua – 5,128,517 ► Honduras – 6,669,789 Capital City ► Panama – Panama City ► Nicaragua – Managua ► Honduras - Tegucigalpa

Language ► Panama – Spanish and English note: many Panamanians bilingual ► Nicaragua – Spanish ► Honduras – Spanish, Amerindian dialects Religion ► Panama – Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15% ► Nicaragua – Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15% Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15% ► Honduras – Roman Catholic 97%

Background Information ► Panama – With US backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and promptly signed a treaty with the US allowing for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land on either side of the structure (the Panama Canal Zone). With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was deposed in The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the Canal, and remaining US military bases were turned over to Panama by or on 31 December 1999.

Background Information ► Nicaragua – The Pacific Coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in Opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in The US intervened and as to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and again in 2001 saw the Sandinistas defeated. The country is currently rebuilding its economy.

Background Information ► Honduras – Part of Spain’s vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in After two and one-half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in During the 1980’s, Honduras proved a haven for anti- Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting against leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused almost $1 billion in damage.

Government Type ► Panama – Constitutional Democracy ► Nicaragua – Republic ► Honduras – Democratic Constitutional Republic

Legal System ► Panama – based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court of Justice ► Nicaragua – civil law system, similar to Panama. ► Honduras – civil law rooted in Roman and Spanish with increasing influence from English common law

Economy ► Panama – Panama's economy is based primarily on a well-developed services sector that accounts for three- fourths of GDP. Services include operating the Panama Canal, banking, the Colon Free Zone, insurance, container ports, flagship registry, and tourism. A slump in Colon Free Zone and agricultural exports, the global slowdown, and the withdrawal of US military forces held back economic growth in The government has been backing public works programs, tax reforms, new regional trade agreements, and development of tourism in order to stimulate growth.

Economy ► Nicaragua – Nicaragua, one of the hemisphere's poorest countries, faces low per capita income, flagging socio-economic indicators, and huge external debt. Distribution of income is one of the most unequal on the globe. While the country has made progress toward macroeconomic stability over the past few years, a banking crisis and scandal has shaken the economy. They currently rely mainly on aid from foreign countries and private investors.

Economy ► Honduras – One of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with an extraordinary unequal distribution of income, is banking on expanded trade privileges under the Enhanced Caribbean Basin Initiative and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. While the country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, it failed to meet the IMF’s goals to liberalize its energy and telecommunications sectors. Growth remains dependent on the status of the US economy, its major trading partner, on commodity prices, particularly coffee, and on reduction of the high crime rate.

Labor Force ► Panama – 1.1 million note: shortage of skilled labor, but an oversupply of unskilled labor (2000 est.) ► Nicaragua – 1.7 million ► Honduras – 2.3 million Labor Force by Occupation ► Panama – agriculture 20.8%, industry 18%, services 61.2% (1995 est.) ► Nicaragua – services 43%, agriculture 42%, industry 15% (1999 est.) ► Honduras – agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45%

Exports ► Panama – $5.8 billion  bananas, shrimp, sugar, coffee, clothing ► Nicaragua – $637 million.  coffee, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco, bananas, beef, sugar, gold. ► Honduras – $1.3 billion f.o.b.  coffee, bananas, shrimp, lobster, meat; zinc, lumber Imports ► Panama – $6.7 billion  capital goods, crude oil, foodstuffs, consumer goods, chemicals ► Nicaragua – $1.7 billion  machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products, consumer goods ► Honduras – $2.7 billion f.o.b.  Machinery and transport equip., industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs

Currency ► Panama – balboa (PAB); US dollar (USD) ► Nicaragua –– Gold Corboda ► Honduras – lempira (HNL) Exchange Rate ► Panama – balboas per US dollar - 1 (2002) ► Nicaragua – Corboda to 1 Dollar (2002) ► Honduras – 16.4 lempiras/US dollar

ISP’s ► Panama – 6 ► Nicaragua – 3 ► Honduras – 8 Internet Users ► Panama – 45,000 (2000) ► Nicaragua – 20,000 (2000) ► Honduras – 40,000

Transnational Issues ► Panama – Illicit Drugs - major cocaine transshipment point and primary money laundering center for narcotics revenue; money-laundering activity is especially heavy in the Colon Free Zone; offshore financial center; negligible signs of coca cultivation; monitoring of financial transactions is improving; official corruption remains a major problem

Transnational Issues ► Nicaragua – Major border disputes with neighboring countries over locations such as the Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank region, and the San Juan River. Also, a transshipment point for drug and arms dealings.

Transnational Issues ► Honduras – In 1992, ICJ ruled on the delimitation of “bolsones” (disputed areas) along the El Salvador- Honduras border, but they still remain largely undemarcated; in 2002, El Salvador filed an application to the ICJ to revise the decision on a section of bolsones; the ICJ also advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Golfo de Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador claims tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned by the ICJ, off Hounduras in the Golfo de Fonseca; Honduras claims Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize but agreed to creation of a joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in the 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex maritime dispute in the Caribbean Sea.

Principal Differences ► Economic strife ► Drug trafficking ► Panama Canal ► Small land mass ► High percentage of unskilled workers ► Extremely low incomes ► Less technology ► Similar language throughout region