Arraiján, a district of the Panama Province in the Republic of Panama, is one located on the southeast area of the province with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the city of La Chorrera on the other. Arraiján is most famous for being the home of former Howard Air Force Base, which is now being developed as a housing community and areas where several private businesses can move their headquarters.  The area of Arraiján is currently the home of approximately 60,000 people, and like La Chorrera is rapidly expanding with housing projects and businesses that could rival those found in Panama City.

Arraiján tends to be tucked under the shadow of its better known neighbor La Chorrera, but Arraiján played a very important part during the time the U.S. Army was stationed in Panama due to the Panama Canal Zone. Since part of the conditions that allowed the Americans build the Panama Canal included having autonomy over lands surrounding the structure as far out as a 5-mile radius in all directions, parts of Arraiján fell into it. As a result, the Howard Air Force Base was built and used as a barracks for soldiers during World War II. Like many of the Panama Canal Zone areas, once General Omar Torrijos Herrera, Panama’s president at the time, signed the Torrijos-Carter treaties with President Jimmy Carter, Howard would be one of the areas that were going to be inevitably reverted to the Panamanian government. During this time though, people from La Chorrera and Veracruz began to migrate the surrounding areas to establish what is known today as Arraiján.

After the reversion of the Panama Canal Zone was completed on December 31^st, 1999, many offshore companies and privately-owned businesses looked at Howard and Arraiján as places that would see a real estate boom in subsequent years and that’s what happened, to an extent; there are many housing communities and neighborhoods that were built in the years following the new Milena, more so than all of the development the area had seen prior to 1999. As for Howard, there was a $20 million grant awarded by the government of President Martín Torrijos in order to develop the area, boasting how it would generate over 20,000 new jobs as a result.

Even though Arraiján doesn’t have much in terms of tourist attractions, its closeness to both the Pacific Coast beaches and the capital of the country in Panama City have made it a very attractive place to live for many Panamanians. Housing and mortgages are relatively inexpensive in comparison to the rates seen in Panama City, and the area has everything anyone could ever want: restaurants, hospitals, banks, high speed Internet and all utilities.

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Filed under: Country Guide on March 24th, 2008