Panama

Panama's identity as a transit country creates a unique masculine crisis. The Canal generates enormous wealth, but that wealth pools in Panama City's banking district while men in Colón — just 80 kilometers away — live in one of the most dangerous cities in the Americas. This hyper-visible inequality means a Panamanian man can see the glass towers from the same street where he can't afford dinner, creating a rage that has no productive outlet.

The Darién Gap has become the world's most dangerous migration corridor, and the men traversing it — Venezuelans, Haitians, Ecuadorians — pass through Panamanian territory in a state of extreme vulnerability. But Panamanian men in these border communities are also affected: their economies are disrupted, their communities are strained, and they're expected to absorb the chaos without complaint. Meanwhile, the Kuna, Emberá, and other indigenous men in Panama's comarcas face a modernity that arrives as extraction — mining, logging, tourism — that takes from their land while offering nothing for their souls.