Panama’s Comeback Is the Blueprint

Chaos often precedes opportunity… if you know where to look.

The other night I appeared on a panel discussion with some of my colleagues here at International Living. The topic was the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela and the forcible rendition of its president and his wife to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

The discussion was marked by what might seem an odd juxtaposition of talking points.

On one hand, we had real estate wizard Ronan McMahon, explaining how he and his RETA teammates have been keeping a close eye on Venezuela for some time to identify prospects for profitable investment once the smoke clears and things settle down (if ever).

On the other hand, Jeff Opdyke and I spoke about the threat to the interests of ordinary Americans—especially expats—if the United States were to continue to violate international law and the sovereignty of other nations with impunity.

Those points might seem as though they’re in tension, but they’re not. They’re at the heart of what we do at International Living.

We’ve been around since 1979. In that time the US has been accused of similar violations of international law numerous times, including the use of force against countries in the Western hemisphere such as Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, and Cuba. The US has also bombed dozens of countries in the context of the “War on Terror.”

Every incident had the potential to harm the interests of individual American citizens and investors who operate overseas. That’s because mistreating American citizens has long been one of the few options available to weaker countries unhappy with US government behaviour.

We would be remiss if we didn’t cover the potential implications of these events. But we’d also be failing in our duty if we didn’t speculate about the opportunities they might create.

Consider Panama: Few people would have thought to retire there in the aftermath of the US forced deposition of dictator Manuel Noriega. But since then, tens of thousands of Americans have done just that. Indeed, Panama has become one of our top recommended destinations.

Managing that seeming contradiction is one of the things I try to do here at IL. My beat is global diversification—which essentially means finding opportunities for life and/or investment abroad that suit real life people. It wouldn’t make sense, however, to recommend opportunities without considering how they might unfold over time… even reverse. Sometimes property is cheap in a country for good reason.

In practise, this means all of us at IL will look at an unfolding situation and say “Hey, there’s some good that could come of this, but not yet. We’ll keep an eye on things and let you know when we recommend taking the leap.”

That applies to more than investment. For example, I’ve been cool towards the many and expanding opportunities for residency in the Persian Gulf. Despite their popularity, I have concerns about their suitability for retirees, as well as the stability of their economic systems, which depend on cheap, unfree foreign labour. (As a South African, I’ve seen what happens when a country tries to build its prosperity on excluding the majority of its residents from political participation.)

I don’t hold the views I do for political reasons. Rather, it’s because I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life living abroad. I’ve spent decades looking upon the US from abroad, hearing what everyday people in other countries think about America and Americans… and noticing patterns. My perspective isn’t based on what I want things to be, but on what they actually are, even if that’s uncomfortable. There are more than enough people out there who will merely tell people what they want to hear, after all.

So if you are interested in exploring realistic, pragmatic opportunities for life and investment abroad, give me a call. I’ll give you the straight dope.