I. One Country, One Flag
NACLA
The surrender of U.S. sovereignty in the Canal Zone is not a negotiable item...We bought it; we paid for it; it is ours. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) If these negotiations fail, we have no...
...governor ignored these statements, even removing flag poles to keep the Panamanian flag out of the Zone...
...interests in all of Latin America and the world...
...schools...
...Draft Treaties were drawn up in 1968, but were rejected by Torrijos after he assumed power because they did not go far enough in meeting the demands of the Panamanian people...
...The Republic of Panama in its capacity as territorial sovereign, shall grant to the United States of America, for the duration of the new interoceanic canal treaty and in accordance with what that treaty states, the right to use the lands, waters and sr-pace which may be necessary for the operation, maintenance, protection and defense of the canal and the transit of ships...
...With the project a dismal and tragic failure, the French Panama Canal Co...
...LXX, No...
...17 b) another complication is that the present canal may become obsolete and will need to be modernized either by enlarging the present one or building a new, sea-level canal...
...Therefore, there have been criticisms within Panama that the eight point agreement includes essentially the same points that were laid out in 1964, and that in spite of all the fanfare caused by Henry Kissinger's whirlwind visit in February, nothing new has been achieved...
...18 c) furthermore, there is disagreement on how much and when control over administering the canal would be transferred to Panama, and how much of a role Panama will play in the defense of the canal...
...In exchange for their independence from Colombian territory in 1903, Panamanians were forced to lose control over the isthmus by giving the United States the right to build, administer and defend a canal in Panama "in perpetuity...
...Bunau-Varilla was in Washington, having demanded that he be appointed Panama's first ambassador to the United States in exchange for his assistance, and there negotiated the betrayal of the Panamanian revolution...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals ($18 for two years...
...employees are paid more than Panamanian workers in the Zone, and the work is racially segregated...
...Congress to buy it...
...The government of Panama, headed by Brig...
...University of Panama, 1973...
...This is one issue that must be resolved in a new treaty...
...Now Panama has emerged as a leader among Third World nations in the struggle to regain control over their natural resources...
...Since 1903, the U.S...
...When the Colombian Congress rejected the treaty, this became the pretext for the United States to support the independence movement in Panama...
...Department of State Bulletin, Vol...
...Members of the U.S...
...However, as we have seen, when it was in the interest of the United States to promote the independence of Panama in order to get better terms for building a Canal, it did so...
...His efforts paralleled Cromwell's in many respects, particularly in spreading anti-Nicaragua propaganda in the United States...
...Omar Torrijos since 1968, has made it clear that Panama will not be a colony of the United States...
...negotiator for a new treaty was forced to admit, "governments in Panama may change, but I am persuaded that governmental change will never again divert the Panamanian people from the course of legitimate nationalism they are now pursuing...
...Unless the U.S...
...Until the last few years, Spanish was not even taught in the U.S...
...Legal documents proving who actually received the $40 million -- brry, in n."wa C amlDstar "TALK IT OVER...
...4 Furthermore, since the United States maintains navies in both major oceans, the strategic importance of the Canal to the United States as a military route has diminished...
...1 5 Former Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson became the chief negotiator...
...did try to open up this field to Panamanians, the U.S...
...16 However, with the defeat of U.S...
...Citizens of Panama are arrested more often, get stiffer sentences, and are imprisoned in U.S...
...Sources: Developments in U.S...
...In the face of repeated militant demonstrations against the U.S...
...territory-- to even get from one part of the country to the other...
...citizens from the Panamanians...
...citizens who live there...
...4. The Panamanian territory in which the canal is situated shall be returned to the jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama...
...Taft indicated that President Roosevelt had authorized him to say that the United States would "consider any attempt at election of a successor by fraudulent method...
...Richard Marsh, an embassy official at the time also allegedly threatened U.S...
...Panama was allowed no independent political life, as election after election was supervised, influenced and subverted by the United States...
...of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the engineer who built the Suez Canal, to construct a canal across the heart of Panama...
...Congress can be persuaded to give up the colonial enclave in Panama, a confrontation will take place.8 The first armed intervention by the United States in Panama took place on May 22, 1850, as a result of a street riot...
...High School in the Zonian city of Balboa and raised their flag next to the American one...
...The United States is proposing 50 years, while Panama is proposing considerably less than that (jurisdictional control over the Zone within five years, operational control over the canal7 S-Pont Panama Agreement "The eight principle points of the new Canal agreement are: 1. The treaty of 1903 and its amendments will be abrogpted by the conclusion of an entirely new interoceanic canal treaty...
...government agency that administers the Canal...
...Daniel Flood (R-Pa...
...Demand for a canal increased during the Spanish-American War of 1898, when it took U.S...
...Despite protests from Panama, and safeguards guaranteeing the protection of foreigners, the United States waited 13 months before withdrawing troops...
...16 per year for non-profit institutions ($30 for two years...
...Until 1962, Panamanian citizens were forbidden to be postal workers or firemen in the Zone...
...Before the presidential election in 1908, the United States, through Secretary of War William Howard Taft and the Governor of the Canal Zone, Joseph Blackburn, was able to pressure the outgoing Panamanian president to request a U.S...
...ships two months to sail 13,000 miles around South America to reach Cuba, instead of only 4,600 miles, had there been an interoceanic waterway...
...A draft treaty may be ready by early 1975,according to reports from Panama and Washington...
...Congress was finally persuaded to approve Panama as the canal site, the government began negotiating with Colombia to take over the concession from the French...
...Policy toward Panama has to be seen in the overall context of the U.S...
...Since Kissinger was present in Panama for the signing ceremony, some observers interpreted this as a new seriousness on the part of the United States to resolve the Panama problem...
...Panamanian students marched to the U.S...
...government...
...8. The United States of America and the Republic of Panama, recognizing the important services rendered by the interoceanic Panama Canal to international maritime traffle, and bearing in mind the possibility that the present canal could become inadequate for said traffic, shall agree bilaterally on provisions for new projects which will enlarge canal capacity...
...colony in Panama...
...The United States had long been interested in the possibilities of building a canal, investigating sites in several Central American countries...
...government has been forced to adopt a new approach to other nations...
...7 The racist viewpoint is reflected in the United States by such spokesmen as Rep...
...jurisdiction over the Canal Zone, and would be ratified by a plebiscite of the people of Panama...
...SOUTHCOM administers military aid programs and maintains a vast counterinsurgency apparatus consisting of training centers for Latin America military personnel, where more than 40,000 troops have been trained...
...In other words, if a candidate was elected that the United States opposed, it would just deem the elections fraudulent and intervene...
...was prepared to sell its construction and concession rights...
...Major incidents occurred in 1851, 1853, 1854, 1858, 1860 and 1861...
...8 The United States, while providing training in some areas such as secretarial and maintenance work, has practically denied Panamanians the technical skills and training necessary to run the canal...
...Led in the House by Daniel Flood and in the Senate by such bastions of anti-communist conservatism as Strom Thurmond (R-SC), the anti-Panama lobby has amassed anough support to defeat the efforts of the negotiatorse.20 Flood, whose grandfather was a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, called the Kissinger agreement "one of the most disgraceful diplomatic episodes" and "an unconstitutional giveaway by faceless wonders in striped pants...
...This reduced the more overt forms of interference, though diplomatic relations were broken several times by the United States to protest various elections and government policies...
...military occupation and annexation if the U.S...
...Brig...
...The Panama Canal Company is the U.S...
...For the next decade, Colombia, which controlled the territory of Panama, requested the presence of U.S...
...Throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, as Colombia tightened its control over the isthmus, Panama struggled to become an independent nation...
...Congressmen indicated that Nicaragua possessed the most advantageous site for constructing a Canal...
...a disturbance of public order which, under Panama's Constitution, requires intervention, and this Government will not permit Panama to pass into the hands of anyone so elected...
...pressure, Mendoza withdrew his candidacy...
...2. The concept of perpetuity will be eliminated...
...In 1881, Colombia negotiated with the French Canal Co...
...They are supported by the Pentagon, the strongest partner in the Panama lobby, and by such groups as the John Birch Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution...
...flag in designated locations...
...13 The liberation movement in Panama was subverted and manipulated to give the United States complete control over the construction, administration and defense of the canal...
...Bunau-Varilla assured the Panamanian leaders, apparently with the go-ahead from President Roosevelt, that U.S...
...government to engage in any action outside the Canal Zone...
...It is mcognized that the geographic position of its territory constitutes the principal resource of the Republic of Panama...
...Torrijos has demanded that the original treaty giving the United States the right to build the canal must be discarded and replaced with a new one which would put an end to U.S...
...There are no Panamanian pilots to guide the ships through the Canal, for example, and when the Canal Co...
...preventing the final passage of Nicaragua canal bills...
...troops (see box on U.S...
...The contrast in living conditions, the racist attitudes and the fact that the government of Panama has no control over the functioning of the canal have all contributed to the strong nationalist position of the Panamanian people...
...Though this was never proven, the scandal later cost Cromwell an appointment as Attorney General under President Taft...
...sovereignty over "an extention of our coastline...
...The United States was given the rights to any future canal in perpetuity--and the right to act as though it were sovereign in the land surrounding the canal...
...and e) also left unresolved in the Kissinger-Tack agreement is the fate of the massive U.S...
...There is even a model Vietnamese village in the Canal Zone which has served as a simulated training site for Indochina-bound Green Berets...
...The Zone is run by a governor who is appointed by the U.S...
...The United States threatened to remove its ships and not intervene if Colombia moved to put down the new nation...
...In 1959, President Eisenhower recognized the titular sovereignty of Panama in the Canal Zone and stated that the Panamanian flag must be raised along with the U.S...
...Underlying all of these disagreements, however, is the issue of Panama's self-determination and its right to control its most valuable resource according to the best needs of the nation...
...The Zone has its own police force, laws, courts, school and postal system, and recreation facilities to serve the 44,000 U.S...
...favorite was not selected as president...
...government has acted as though Panama were a virtual extension of its territory...
...government considered an unconstitutional decree postponing elections...
...Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signed an eight point agreement (see box) upon which any new treaty will be based...
...GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY AND THE BIRTH OF A NATION After the wars of liberation in Latin America which overthrew Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, Panama was dominated by Colombia as part of the country known as New Grenada...
...Copyright C 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...policy toward Panama and maintains that the United States must not give up the zone or the military activities...
...25 per year for profitmaking and government organizations ($48 for two years...
...The Republic of Panama has always realized that its most significant natural resource is its geographic position--a narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the crossroads of the hemisphere...
...He was first able to pressure the French Co...
...2 The Canal Zone is a 550 square mile strip of land extending for five miles on either side of the Canal...
...Most of the Panamanian employees, including those who live in the Zone, are Black...
...NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol VIII, No...
...citizens, nearly all of them white, who have exported the same racist system to Panama that they developed in the United States...
...Torrijos has announced that if these negotiations fail, the people will fight to defend their national sovereignty, "one generation offering its life so that other generations may find a free country...
...Army troops, complete with tanks and air support, killed 22 Panamanian students and wounded hundreds of others.1 On January 10, Panama broke diplomatic relations with the United States for four months...
...students and kicked out of the Zone...
...According to Rep...
...BUT STAND YOUR GROUNDI" have never been made public, and there have been serious charges that Cromwell and his influential associates may have appropriated it by speculating in the stock of the French Co...
...Troops again entered Panama City in 1925 to put down rioting that broke out when workers demonstrated and went on strike in favor of lower rents...
...1 Torrijos is a popular leader who represents the aspirations of all Panamanians in the fight to defend their national sovereignty and gain control over the Canal...
...19 And this will be a difficult diplomatic victory for Kissinger to achieve...
...This confrontation served as the turning point in the U.S...
...The stage has been set for a real confron- tation with Panama...
...Panama wants the U.S...
...The manicured lawns and tennis clubs in the Zone are in stark contrast to the conditions in the urban centers of Panama City and Colon...
...The treaty he signed with Hay was even more disadvantageous than the one proposed to Colombia just a few months earlier...
...1817, April 22, 1974...
...In Panama City, the Zone police and U.S...
...In addition, the Pentagon has turned the entire zone into a military garrison housing 13 military bases with 14,000 troops, a Green Beret training program and the headquarters for U.S...
...In January 1964 this situation erupted into violence...
...warships did indeed appear off the coast to thwart Colombia's attack...
...In 1921, U.S...
...This demand was given worldwide support in March 1973, when the UN Security Council met in Panama and voted overwhelmingly in favor of Panama's right to sovereignty over the Canal and the Zone surrounding it...
...RECENT NEGOTIATIONS Dissatisfaction with the terms of the 1903 treaty has continued ever since it was signed...
...government created the legal sanction to establish a virtual colony in Panama and took this opportunity to build up a military apparatus that now extends from Panama throughout Latin America...
...As a result of U.S...
...Panama broke off diplomatic relations with the United States and protested at the UN Security Council and the Organization of American States...
...11 Thus began a complex and questionable series of maneuvers orchestrated in part by William Nelson Cromwell, of the prestigious Sullivan and Cromwell law firm, to convince the U.S...
...citizens and Panamanians...
...They were violently attacked by U.S...
...In 1936, the United States and Panama revised portions of the 1903 treaty, eliminating the right of the U.S...
...The treaty shall also provide that Panama will assume total responsibility for the operation of the canal...
...interests in Panama...
...Panama wants the rights to any new canal, while the United States wants to extend the length of the treaty to cover the building of a new canal so that it can maintain control...
...commission to oversee the election...
...There were "silver" toilets and "gold" ones, "silver" buses and restaurants and "gold" ones, all to segregate the U.S...
...They are based on a profound sense of the necessary honor and justice of Panama...
...Negotiating efforts dwindled until 1973, when Anderson resigned his post and was replaced by veteran diplomat Ellsworth Bunker...
...The Panamanian Congress was forced to ratify this violation of their national sovereignty only under severe pressure and blackmail...
...Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) If these negotiations fail, we have no other recourse but to fight...
...troops were called in to protect the President after he was attacked by angry citizens...
...When the U.S...
...property that was endangered...
...During the 1918 presidential election, U.S...
...Congress are gathering support to fight any treaty which gives up U.S...
...Interventions...
...to sell out for the low price of $40 million, and then pressured the U.S...
...There are several main areas of disagreement over the terms of the Canal treaty: a) the new treaty will be of fixed duration, but neither side can agree on how long that period should be...
...The treaty was amended twice, in 1936 and 1955, but the basic source of tension, the issue of U.S...
...pilots staged a slow-down in protest...
...It would only be a fair, democratic election if their favorite won...
...In February 1974, Panama's Foreign Minister Juan Tack, and U.S...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, NY.4 The Bolivian rangers who tracked down and murdered Che Guevara in 1967 were trained by U.S...
...troops marched into the cities of Panama and Colon as a result of what the U.S...
...These are segregated, as is the special school system that educates their children, and there has been a rather open policy of pushing the Panamanians out of the Zone to reduce the obvious manifestations of racial segregation...
...It is particularly opposed to the counterinsurgency training programs which have been applied against opposition movements in many Latin American countries, often with the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency...
...policy in Vietnam and the resultant change in the balance of power, the U.S...
...12 Cromwell legally represented the French Canal Co., owned much of its stock and was the virtual head of the Panama Railroad and other U.S...
...Bunau-Varilla himself warned that "if the government is thinking about not adopting this little resolution, I do not want to be responsible for the calamities that could follow...
...sovereignty in the Canal Zone was not a negotiable item...
...In response, a protest movement developed that led to other confrontations throughout the country...
...Later that year, troops were sent to Chiriqui province to protect U.S...
...Panamanian nationalists attempted repeatedly to break away from Colombia, but were unsuccessful in part due to these and other actions taken by the U.S...
...Relations with Panama, 1903-present...
...10 Preliminary studies by U.S...
...As a result, Arias' supporters stayed away from the polls and the opponent won an easy victory...
...warships would be off the coast and would prevent Colombia from sending an invading army to put down the revolution...
...presence in Panama, even Ellsworth Bunker, chief U.S...
...Reflecting a new attitude toward the Panama situation he said: We realize well that the demands of the Panamanian government, and of the majority of the Panamanian people, don't originate in malice or hatred toward the United States...
...Over the last 70 years a powerful feeling has grown among the people to control their own land, and they will not ratify a treaty that by-passes this issue...
...d) a new treaty must also take into account Panama's demand for a larger share of the revenues from canal tolls...
...The only other justification for the military presence in the Zone is, according to Congressman Les Aspin, as "an intervention force in Latin America," and this is what the Panamanians are objecting to.5 "GOLD AND SILVER" The non-military population of the Zone, Zonians as they are called, is composed of 30,000 U.S...
...ANTI-PANAMA LOBBY This is only one side of the problem, however...
...In the Zone, the judicial system is also applied unevenly to U.S...
...The Pentagon has been among the most influential voices in determining U.S...
...They circulated Nicaraguan postage stamps to all members of Congress depicting a smoking volcano, thus further discrediting Nicaragua as a viable site for a canal...
...3. Termination of United States jurisdiction over Panamanian territory shall take place promptly in accordance with the terms specified in the treaty...
...Thus far, the governor has always come from the ranks of the Army Corps of Engineers, the unit that built the Canal, and the Zone has often been referred to as a "company town...
...Though conditions have improved somewhat over the last 70 years, a system had been institutionalized until the 1950's to discriminate against Panamanians in the Zone...
...3 SOUTHCOM was originally created to defend the Canal itself, but its function has expanded to include the defense of U.S...
...attitude toward the Panama situation...
...jails in the Zone...
...and negotiating the abortive treaty with Colombia...
...In 1910, after the death of then President Obaldia, the United States was again concerned that the probable election of Carlos Mendoza as president would be "detrimental to the good interests of Panama, of the Canal Zone and of American influence...
...and tensions between the Zonians and the Panamanians citizens increased...
...Few Zonians know Spanish,5 and they rarely travel through the Republic...
...military presence in the Canal Zone, which Panama wants removed...
...The U.S...
...sovereignty "in perpetuity" was never resolved...
...They also independently maintained relationships with the leaders of the independence movement in Panama...
...Panamanians have to pass through the Zone--U.S...
...However, the U.S...
...Due to errors in judgement, mismanagement, corruption and disease, 20,000 workers died in the attempt and the company went bankrupt...
...troops almost yearly to put down rebellions and riots...
...The United States applied a similar policy against the democratically elected government of Chile in the coup of September 1973...
...citizens in the Zone is one of fear and distrust of the Panamanians, and the desire to remain as separate as possible...
...The new treaty concerning the lock canal shall have a fixed termination date...
...21 Thurmond wrote "the surrender of U.S...
...They remained for two weeks...
...troops from the Canal Zone...
...6. The Republic of Panama shall participate in the administration of the canal, in accordance with a procedure to be agreed upon in the treaty...
...Panama and its Relations with the United States...
...Colombia, having recognized the importance of the isthmus for world trade, intervened repeatedly to put down rebellions, often with the assistance of U.S...
...However, with respect to the defense of the Canal, military spokesmen themselves have admitted that one direct hit would wipe out the Canal for the duration of any nuclear war...
...government is trying to make as many concessions as possible without really losing control of the canal operation and without weakening the military enclave in Panama...
...policy of detente toward the Soviet Union and China, and the ending of the blockade against Cuba in Latin America...
...did not want as president...
...They forced the withdrawal from the election of Ricardo Arias whom the U.S...
...Cromwell was aided in these efforts by Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a Frenchman who wanted to go down in history as the father of the Panama Canal and who also had invested a lot of money in the French Canal Co...
...A militant nationalist movement developed, spearheaded by students, that demanded an end to the U.S...
...Such provisions will be incorporated in the new treaty in accord with the concepts established in Principle 2. by 20 years...
...The United States did not hesitate to respond, primarily to protect the Panama railroad which had been built by the United States in the 1850's and which was becoming increasingly important to its westward expansion and trade...
...Various government and private agencies have prepared voluminous reports concerning a sea-level canal, but a decision to actually go ahead and construct one has not been made, partly because it is still unclear whether the United States or Panama will hold the rights to it...
...the Colombian soldiers stationed in Panama were paid off with money6 supplied by Bunau-Varilla and U.S...
...At a time when nationalist movements are growing stronger throughout the world, and when Panama has worldwide support for its position, the United States is forced to change its colonial relationship with Panama...
...Secretary of State John Hay sent a treaty to Colombia (written at least in part by Cromwell), though many influential politicians in the United States knew that the terms were too unfavorable to be acceptable to the Colombian government...
...22 Other Congressmen believe that the current talks should never have begun...
...5. The Republcl of Panma shall have a just and equitable share of the benefits derived from the operation of the canal in its territory...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...7. The republic of Panama shall participate with the United States of America in the protection and defense of the canal in accordance with what is agreed upon in the new treaty...
...workers were paid in gold coins, Panamanian workers in silver, and this difference became integrated into the Zonian way of life...
...military apparatus out, charging that these activities violate its national sovereignty...
...Small groups of Panamanians, most of them Black and descended from the West Indian workers who built the canal, live in communities in the Canal Zone...
...The general attitude of the U.S...
...During the event, only one person was killed...
...7 September 1974 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY 10027...
...government and is also the President of the Canal Co...
...General Omar Torrijos The controversy over who has sovereignty over the Panama Canal has been raging ever since 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt "took the Canal and left Congress to debate...
...justifying his exorbitant fee, he included among his services: lobbying with the Congress, the press and "among all the influential classes in the United States...
...The Panamanian government protested publically to Woodrow Wilson about this interference, "which violates the sovereignty of Panama without any justification...
...In 1885, the United States occupied the land adjacent to the railway for 56 days, when demands for independence by Panamanians led to open resistance and the burning of the city of Colon...
...Robert Leggett, chairman of the House Panama Canal subcommittee, "It has been said in Washington, that as far as the treaty is concerned, what would be approved by a plebiscite in the Republic of Panama would probably not stand a chance of approval by a majority of the House and Senate...
...However, the Zonians and the U.S...
...military operations in Latin America--the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM...
...Upon the termination of the treaty the Republic of Panama shall grant to the United States of America the rights necessary to regulate the transit of ships through the canal, to operate, maintain, protect and defend the canal, and to undertake any other specific activity related to those ends as may be agreed upon in the treaty...
...The new Panamanian government was sending its own diplomatic delegation and had not authorized Bunau-Varilla to negotiate a new treaty, but they arrived only hours after the sell-out had been signed...
...They have no recourse to their own system of justice on the other side of the fence...
...The UN Security Council meeting and the more recent meeting of the Latin American foreign ministers, indicates that world opinion is in support of the Panamanian position...
...They have come to see the Zone as an extension of the United States, ignoring the fact that it bisects another country that has its own culture and traditions...
...As a result, the United States was forced to concede that the 1903 treaty was untenable and would have to be renegotiated on the basis of restoring Panama's sovereignty over the Canal, the Zone and the Republic itself...
...This Zone divides the country in half, and is a constant affront to the dignity, territorial integrity and right of self-determination of Panama...
...In December 1964, President Johnson announced that the United States was willing to negotiate an entirely new treaty on the Panama Canal on the basis of Panamanian sovereignty...
...See Gunboat Diplomacy and the Birth of a Nation...
...According to a brief Cromwell filed with the French Co...
...who thinks "that the Panamanians are not even (good) garbage collectors...
...Thus, Panama has never had control over the single most important factor in its economic development, and the fight to regain this control has never ceased...
...Congress that the canal should be built in Panama...
...troops and police from the Canal Zone periodically fought against Panamanian citizens in confrontations over who controlled the Zone, and in 1964, they killed 22 Panamanian students and wounded hundreds of others...
Vol. 8 • September 1974 • No. 7
