Panama: Yes They Are Still Stealing Land amd Real Estate From The Poor in Panama

Ambiguous Land Law Allows for Evictions of Long-Term Residents

Story by La Prensa

A network of land grabbers operating in the country is taking advantage of loopholes in the law to profit off of the good faith of unsuspecting residents, according to legal counselor for the Public Registry Rafael Carvajal.

Carvajal explained that a law aiming to protect the poor from being evicted from untitled land they have occupied sometimes for generations is being turned around and used to seize the land and later sold.

Moreover, the lawyer said that anyone who owns a property or estate that they have not visited for years, can also fall victim to these speculators.

The legal standard for these acquisitions is found in the Civil Code and provides that a person can ask a judge to award a land title if there is proof of one's undisturbed and uninterrupted residence on the property for at least 15 years. However, Carvajal noted that the rule allows exceptions in which the minimum residency can be reduced to three consecutive years.

Jaime Correa, spokesman for the Property Owners Association of Panama, indicated that further problems arise in the judicial process of land transfer applications because courts don't thoroughly investigate the claims of prospective title holders.

"Judges are only as good as the witnesses, which are often false, who are introduced by those seeking the land to swear that he has several years living in the place and even made improvements to the property," he said.

Correa argues that the problem is that the law is being used by organizations to strip owners of their property, not by necessity, as is the spirit of the law, but for sale to the highest bidder.

At this point, Carvajal confirmed that the Public Registry has its hands tied because their duty is to comply with court orders, to enter or register an estate on behalf of a person or company.


The Ochoa Aparicio family had an encounter with the network of carpetbaggers, although they learned that that the purchase and sale of their land had been processed through a notary. In trying to trace the transaction and uncover details, the family realized that the page with the information attesting to the action had been torn from Public Registry books.

"This is done to leave no traces of anything while selling the land to a guilty party or an accomplice," said Alberto Ochoa, who claims the law must be reformed to prevent the ease from which honest residents lose their land to opportunists.