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The centerpiece of Panama City's Plaza Porras, whose surrounding buildings include the Panama provincial governor's Casa de Gobernacion, prosecutors' offices in which many episodes of the country's most infamous legal dramas play themselves out, the Tribunal Electoral and the Spanish and Cuban embassies, is named after a great Panamanian who didn't particularly want to be Panamanian. Belisario Porras was the Liberal leader on the isthmus during Colombia's bloody 1000 Day War, and when Panama declared its independence shortly after that conflict ended he thought it was a bad idea. Nevertheless he went on to be president of Panama, by most accounts one of the better ones. Photo by Eric Jackson

Also in this section:
Theatre Guild of Ancon
Spanish-language theater
Caribbean arts neweletter
Belisario Porras
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