It is deeply split between technocrat reformists and left-wingers loyal to the memory of Omar Torrijos, an earlier dictator who modernised the country in the 1970s and early 1980s.
So despite today's discovery, we Brits are likely to remain split on Richard down the old lines: murdering, crook-backed, dissembling Shakespearean monster versus misunderstood, loyal, enlightened, slandered hero.