Notes from a Panama in collision with Trump's global upheaval

Hello! I’m Jared Mitovich, a 2025 Overseas Press Club Foundation scholar and an incoming News Associate at The Wall Street Journal. 

I’ve long taken interest in documenting how power players influence local communities and institutions. Right now, that story is all over Panama as its future collides with Trump’s global upheaval — with anti-government strikes driven in by part by the country’s recent agreements with the U.S., a reshuffling of the U.S-Chinese balance of influence in the country, and threats to scientific research that could influence the Panama Canal’s operations.

I’ll be using this newsletter to share English-language scoops, dispatches, summaries, and tidbits as I travel through the country and report. The reporting notes I publish here will aim to be relevant to anyone with a stake in U.S.-Panama relations: researchers, businesspeople, policymakers, experts, expats, and residents of either country.

I want this newsletter to be relevant to you, so I hope you’ll follow along here to get notified every time I publish. You can email me at [email protected] with any thoughts, tips, or feedback — or find me on Signal at @jmitovich.83. Follow me on X and Bluesky at @jmitovich.