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This systematic review sought to conduct a critical analysis of the foundations that support legal capacity as a human right for people with disabilities in Panama and other Latin American countries. A comparative study was conducted of studies, scientific articles, and documentary guides examining the legislation of Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Spain, and Panama. The research applied a non-experimental qualitative method, employing the PRISMA protocol to maintain a systematic and exhaustive approach to the search, evaluation, and analysis of available academic works. The search was conducted in the Scielo, Redalyc, Dialnet, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, selecting eight research papers in Spanish from 2021 to 2023. In this sense, one of the main findings of this research was that, although Panama ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and has published certain guidelines such as the SENADIS Guide (2021), the country maintains legal practices that support the substitute model of will. In contrast to Spain and Peru (which have adopted laws guaranteeing the autonomous exercise of legal capacity), Panama does not have legislation regulating such procedures. The study emphasized, as a final note, the need for comprehensive legislative reform in Panama, related to the alignment of the legal system with the standards of international law, which requires a shift from guardianship to a disability support framework that respects the autonomy and capacity of people with disabilities.
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