Once Panama had gained its independence in 1903, a physician, Dr Manuel Amador Guerrero, who led the nationalists, stepped in as leader. Inevitably, it was not long before American interference started making waves in the new regime. The Americans were anxious to wrap up the canal issue in order to start building, but the Panamanians were equally anxious to control their own country. Amador's government appointed Bunau-Varilla as [G 10 / minister plenipotentiary], a move primarily instigated by the latter. Negotiations with the Americans were left up to the Frenchman to sort out. Amador insisted on only three principles in the agreement: that America should agree to uphold sovereignty, territorial integrity and public order; that no arrangements should be implemented that affected the sovereignty of Panama; and that no canal treaty should be signed without it first being seen by Amador.
Bunau-Varilla did not take the slightest notice of Amador's requests. He hastily wrote up an agreement in close association with Secretary State Hay that violated everything Amador had asked for, and even worse, gave the US more power and control than it had ever thought was imaginable. When Amador heard what Bunau-Varilla had done, he apparently fainted in shock on a Washington railway platform (he was supposed to have been involved in the negotiations of the treaty, but had been purposefully delayed in New York by Bunau-Varilla so he could not interfere or object to the agreement).
At the end of 1903 a treaty was finally drawn up between Hay and Bunau-Varilla that violated every principle of the newly-independent Panama. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (SEE FACTS AND FIGURES) has probably been responsible for 80 percent of the problems experienced between the US and Panama ever since. Bunau-Varilla deceived the Panamanian government for his own, and America's, gains.
