Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez is President of the Republic of Panama, a position he has held since May 2014.

President Juan Carlos Varela R. (@JC_Varela) studied primary and secondary in Javier College, under the direction of the Company of Jesus Order. He graduated as an Industrial Engineer from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), in the United States. 

He was elected Vice President of the Republic of Panamá in July 2009. In March 2013 he became the presidential candidate for the Panameñista Party and in August of that same year, he was proclaimed candidate of the Alliance "El Pueblo Primero", formed by the Panameñista Party and the Popular Party, with the support of the independent sectors of the country. 

Alvaro Mendez (@alvaroimendez) is the co-founder of the LSE Global South Unit. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the LSE.

The LSE Global South Unit (@LSE_Globalsouth) is a decentralised ideas hub aimed at investigating the changing role of the South in shaping the global order.

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPanama

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