The Panama Canal

A more striking instance of a modern imperial hangover than the Panama Canal would be difficult to find. Indeed it may well come to be viewed as an historical classic: it is so simple, yet so intractable and so burdened with emotions and heated arguments exciting the populace in the United States, in the Panama Republic, and in all the other Latin American countries. Knowing that a treaty between the United States and Panama was nearing completion after more than twelve years of negotiations, the New York Times in December 1976 editorially warned that unless the United States was reconciled to relinquishing control of the canal to Panama, the new Carter administration about to take office would be ineffective in its relations with the other Latin American states. Panama, declared the Times, was the issue that united virtually all Latin America against Yankee imperialism, the one conspicuous symbol remaining of 'manifest destiny' and the big stick era. Warnings like this, however, had not deterred the ambitious ex-governor of California, Ronald Reagan, from exploiting the issue in domestic politics. Deifying the United States as 'sovereign' over the canal zone, Reagan personified the formidable nationalist forces that rose up to thwart the diplomacy striving to surmount party politics. But, as we shall see, a massive popular opposition welled up from below, threatening to wash away all the gains of painstaking diplomacy put into final treaty form in September 1977. There were two treaties, the first and longer one providing in great detail for a relationship between the two countries during a

Diplomacy · Economic history · Economics · International trade · Latin Americans · Opposition (politics · Panama · Panama canal · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Sovereignty · Treaty · Cuban History and Society · History · International Relations in Latin America · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America

• Ganhos relativos ou política doméstica? Os tratados do Canal do Panamá como um jogo de dois níveis

  Open Access•R D Villa, Fábio Cereda Cordeiro•Contexto Internacional•2006

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