The last time Mike Gonzalez was in Panama, he was arrested. Upon returning 36 years later, he was welcomed into Panama’s presidential palace to meet with President José Raúl Mulino.
As Gonzalez will attest, much has changed in Panama since 1988.
“Panama is now a free place that elects its own government. Back then, it wasn’t,” Gonzalez, who today serves as a senior fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, told The Daily Signal.
Gonzalez traveled to Panama with a delegation from The Heritage Foundation led by Heritage President Kevin Roberts. The delegation met with Mulino, who took office last July 1, and Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Martínez-Acha to discuss U.S.-Panama relations and the threat China poses to the region.
