coolcoil

I agree with all that is said in the prior posts. I transit all the time, and would be comfortable even with a 45 minute connection. One warning: Not all announcements are made in English, especially for flights to non-English speaking countries, and the ones that are made in English are hard to understand. If you don't speak Spanish, keep a close eye on the monitors and what your fellow passengers are doing.

To expand on the liquid confiscation, when you are getting on a US-bound flight you will go through a hand luggage inspection and pat-down at the gate. They will deny boarding to any liquids except for duty-free stuff that you will get on the jetway.

Therefore, unlike the US, you cannot carry on a drink that you bought on the concourse. Also, if you buy a liquid at the duty free at your originating airport, you cannot carry it on your US bound flight in PTY. You won't have access to your checked luggage, so you will be out of luck. For example, if I were to buy booze at the Medellin duty free when flying MDE-PTY-IAD, I would lose it at the gate. There is no size exception, so even a small bottle of perfume would be lost. I am not sure what they do about medical stuff.

Note: Many of the store operators have multiple stores. In one case, I shopped at a store that was not the closest to my gate. When I went to check out, I was told that I had to make my purchase at their store closest to the gate, as that location did not service my gate. Annoying, especially since "my" store was closed due to an electrical problem.

If you are headed to your Latin America destination, they will actually give you your stuff in the store to carry out. As far as I know, the classic duty-free system of collecting your stuff on the jetway only applies to North America-bound flights.