Not always so.
Noriega being deposed by Reagan, has worked out pretty well for the average Panamanian. Visited a few years ago and it's far far from perfect, but on the whole the locals are pretty content. By the standards of Latin America good level health and education systems. Low crime. The observers say free and fair elections
Helps of course to have the canal as such a big revenue earner. But could basket case Venezula with all it's oil, be a larger version Panama in 20 years if it was sayonara Maduro? Maybe.
Edit - some trivia. Panama is the only country outside Israel to have more than one Jewish faith person to be head of state. Or so I read. There is quite a Jewish community in sweaty Panama City. Follow the shekels
Edit 2 - it is awhile ago now but I'd suggest the regime changes that the US helped bring at the end of WWII, were on the whole, for the better of humanity.
Noriega being deposed by Reagan, has worked out pretty well for the average Panamanian. Visited a few years ago and it's far far from perfect, but on the whole the locals are pretty content. By the standards of Latin America good level health and education systems. Low crime. The observers say free and fair elections
Helps of course to have the canal as such a big revenue earner. But could basket case Venezula with all it's oil, be a larger version Panama in 20 years if it was sayonara Maduro? Maybe.
Edit - some trivia. Panama is the only country outside Israel to have more than one Jewish faith person to be head of state. Or so I read. There is quite a Jewish community in sweaty Panama City. Follow the shekels
Edit 2 - it is awhile ago now but I'd suggest the regime changes that the US helped bring at the end of WWII, were on the whole, for the better of humanity.