It's a matter of demographics: any way you want to count, white people comprise a small minority in Panama that's greatly outnumbered by black people, so the representatives of those organizations that insist on light-skinned Carnival queens tend to compare badly with Panama's foxy black queens. Archive photo by José F. Ponce

February 20-24 this year

Remember Mingthoy Giro, the first lady's friend and manager of the Despacho de la Primera Dama, from whose facilities 35 tons of bronze sculpture mysteriously disappeared? Well, they had her in charge of Panama City's Carnival celebrations these past few years and she was unpopular in that role, having moved the party from Via España to the Transistmica, stripped away much of the cultural content, annoyed the residents and businesses along and near the route and set up a little police state that still didn't manage to prevent shootings. But could you imagine how the crowd would react this year, in light of the missing sculptures scandal?

So the first lady's husband appointed a new Carnival Board, to be headed by Ricardo Guerra and given a $4.8 million budget to largely fritter away by putting PRD hacks on the payroll. They skipped the usual ad agency apartheid standards and got a foxy brown queen this year, Her Majesty Viviana I (Atencio).

President Torrijos and Panama City Carnival royalty. Photo by the Presidencia

The new Carnival organization for the capital also got a lawsuit. Opposition legislator Mireya Lasso (Vanguardia Moral - Panama City), who represents many constituents along the route, is suing to have the location changed because she says it's unconstitutional to block off businesses for the better part of a week and restrict people coming from and going to their homes without more legal process than there has been. It looks like an election year stunt, but she does have some powerful arguments in one never knows with the Panamanian court system.

Across the rest of the country, most places are set to be more ordinary.

Las Tablas will again have the biggest party, a total madhouse that will have the maleantes from all over the country circulating in the crowds, so don't bring too much for pickpockets and muggers to steal and use strategies to limit their take if they do strike (forget about the purse or wallet, distribute folding money in several places on your person and so on).

These guys came prepared for the cops in Penonome. Archive photo by Eric Jackson

The rivers are running and the reservoirs are full, so Penonome's Water Carnival on the Zarati River will proceed. Cocle authorities are again banning most other Carnival activities throughout the province and if we are lucky they will avoid stepping too far from the line that separates adequate police protection from obnoxious stormtrooper tactics.

The celebration with the most cultural content, best food and most conscientious family orientation will be the Antillean Fair, on the grounds of Panama City's Afro-Antillean Museum on Carnival Saturday and Sunday. How many grandparents from New York will come down here with youngsters in tow this year, to show them their Panamanian roots? Surely some, maybe a lot.

With the exception of Cocle province, many towns and villages throughout the country will be offering celebrations large and small, with the smaller ones tending to focus on kids and neighborhoods and more traditional Panamanian culture. Capira and La Villa de Los Santos will have some of the larger and more noteworthy parties, if you like crowds. Atlantic side communities in Colon and Bocas, and places in the high areas of Chiriqui and Veraguas aren't really set up to draw the big tourist crowds, but in those places the small celebrations you find will have these unique local cultural twists.