The Panama Canal Authority has continually strengthened all its protection and security measures, including a Risk Analysis Group for ships passing through the canal.

On the other hand, Britain restricted the passage of enemy ships through the Suez Canal throughout the First and Second World Wars, and the United States of America partially or fully restricted the use of the Panama Canal during the two World Wars.

The Panamanian travel document contains more than 40 security measures, including: a digitalized personal information page; high-security laminate sold by the manufacturer only to governments; security colouring and printing features; special security fibres; security thread; watermarks; machine readability; compliance with international standards (ISO-ICAO); OCR-B type bar code; the cover, still sky blue in colour, has some four security measures; the inside front cover, which has the Panamanian flag on one side and a ship crossing the Panama Canal on the other, incorporates more than 12 security measures in total; the personal information page, on which all information is digitalized, including the signature and photograph, has one of the most secure laminates in the world; the signature of the authorized official approving issue of the passport appears on page 31; page 32 contains the machine-readable code included in the new Panamanian passport in accordance with the security standards of the international standardization and civil aviation organizations; the inside back cover contains more than four security measures including the coat of arms of Panama and the seal denoting payment of the passport tax.