This is part 1 of the series where Base Panamá’s founder tells, first person, why he traded Brazil for Panama — and what he verified before moving.

Let me start by undoing a common misunderstanding: I did not leave Brazil because things were going badly.

My life in Sorocaba, São Paulo, was very good. Excellent gated community, a company that always returned healthy profit, no financial problem pushing me out. If the decision had been about money at that moment, I would have stayed.

What made me leave

It was something else: fear of legal and political instability. I looked at the scenario and decided to move ahead of what might come — and it is exactly what is happening now. Crisis, households drowning in debt, a climate where people measure every word, a general sense of chaos. My read: whoever wins the next elections, the economy suffers. I preferred not to wait and find out.

And there was a second point that weighed just as much: safety. Every year Brazil gets worse on that front — and I was not going to change countries to put my family somewhere riskier. That was criterion number one.

How I decided (spoiler: not by reading articles online)

I did not decide from a distance. I came to see Panama first, with my wife and my daughter — precisely so they could feel the climate, the place, the everyday life. Changing countries is not one person’s decision; it belongs to the whole family.

During that phase I joined a business immersion run by André Bianca, where I met entrepreneurs already living here and got the information that actually mattered. Talking to people who already walked the path beats any amount of research.

From there, I checked everything point by point — safety, healthcare, taxes, banking, cost of living. That is exactly what the next parts of this series cover.

👉 Continues in part 2: what I verified before moving — safety, healthcare and taxes.

Thinking about the same path? My advance advice: visit first, bring the family, and talk to people who live here. The complete relocation roadmap is this series’ technical map.