The only crime we heard about in Panama was either in the city of Colon or at Shelter Bay Marina. Colon is just a bad city and Shelter Bay Marina had a couple of employees that were doing inside jobs stealing from boats in the marina or the yard.

Other than those two places I haven't heard of anything the likes or prevalence of Costa Rica.

I particularly like the way the Rio Dulce area in Guatemala handles crime. Anyone does anything to cruisers on the Rio Dulce and the local drug cartel finds and kills the guilty parties. Third world justice at it's best. The local cartel has even hired the Guatemalan Coast Guard to patrol the area 24/7 in an effort to keep x-pats and cruisers safe. We've never felt safer anywhere we've been including the U.S.