Panama Canal Treaty (1977). In January 1964, twenty-one Panamanians died in severe riots in their home country, where waves of demonstrators were a recurring phenomenon. They demanded U.S. withdrawal from the isthmus where the United States had had the mandate to exercise "all the rights, power, and authority" of a sovereign state since President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrated the 1903 Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty. The Panama Canal Zone, and the Southern Command of U.S. troops there, came to symbolize "yankee" domination of Central America.
In December 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised negotiations to abrogate the 1903 treaty, and by June 1967 a draft treaty had been initialed. Strong resistance in both countries doomed its prospects. President Richard Nixon resumed discussions in 1970, and four years later Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signed an agreement of principles with Panamanian foreign minister Juan Antonio Tack. The Watergate scandal and the weak presidency of Gerald Ford jeopardized implementation.
President Jimmy Carter, wanting to foster goodwill in Latin America, resumed negotiations and finalized two treaties based on the 1967 principles. The Canal Treaty prescribed twenty-two years for control to gradually pass to Panama. The Neutrality Treaty required Panama to keep the canal open and accessible. A "statement of understanding" permitted the United States to defend the canal "against any aggression or threat" but not to intervene in Panama's domestic affairs.
The signing ceremony with Panama's ruler, Colonel Omar Torrijos Herrera, was held on 7 September 1977 in the presence of Western Hemisphere leaders. Approval in Panama was secured by a plebiscite on 23 October 1977. In the United States, ratification took two years after strong opposition from the Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and Senator Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, who opposed the closing of the Southern Command, other U.S. bases, and a surrender of territory and influence.
Carter personally secured the requisite two-thirds majority for the 1978 ratification of these treaties in the Senate, both by a 68 to 32 margin. Carter ceded control and sovereignty to Panamanians in an attempt to reverse the legacy of U.S. domination by endorsing equality, self-government, and territorial integrity. DeConcini attached an amendment to the Neutrality Treaty—which was approved on 16 March—that gave the United States the right to use force if necessary to keep the canal open. The Democratic leadership of the Senate introduced an amendment to the Canal Treaty—approved on 18 April—that negated any U.S. right to intervene in Panama's internal affairs. Enabling legislation for the two treaties passed the House and Senate in September 1979, and both treaties went into effect on 1 October 1979.
In the 1980s, Panama's ruler, General Manuel Noriega, a former American ally, became increasingly independent and provocative toward the United States. He was also involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. On 20 December 1989, President George H. W. Bush ordered Operation Just Cause, which restored a duly-elected Panamanian, Guillermo Endara, as president but made the country a de facto American protectorate for several years. The United States ousted and captured Noriega just days before an independent Panamanian, Gilberto Guardia Fabréga, was to oversee the Panama Canal Commission for the first time. Ten years later, at noon on 31 December 1999, the U.S. presence ended in the Canal Zone, and Panama assumed full and total sovereignty.
Bibliography
Rumage, Sarah. "Panama and the Myth of Humanitarian Intervention in U.S. Foreign Policy: Neither Legal Nor Moral, Neither Just Nor Right." Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law 10 (1993): 1–76.
