NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6561

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Panama: Doubt Over US Promise to Hand Over Canal
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Date: 15 Sep 92 01:33:00 GMT
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/** reg.panama: 62.0 **/
** Topic: IPS: Many Doubt that **
** Written  1:33 pm  Sep  7, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:reg.panama **
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS: Many Doubt that

/* Written 12:10 am  Sep  7, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: PANAMA: MANY DOUBT THAT WASHINGTON WILL HAND OVER PANAMA CANAL

an inter press service feature

by silvio hernandez

panama, sep 4 (ips) --  fifteen years after u.s. and panamanian
presidents signed a set of treaties on the panama canal, many
here doubt that washington will hand over the inter-oceanic
waterway to panama by the end of the century, as agreed under the
accords.

the failure of the government of president guillermo endara to
come up with concrete proposals for the treaties' implementation
as well as other developments have led opposition politicians to
fear that panama might not recover full jurisdiction over the
canal by the agreed date.

while washington has assured that it will comply with the sep.
7, 1977 agreements, statements by president endara betray the
same doubt which prevails among the population.

in a message to parliament on sep. 1, endara said ''there is a
growing expectancy'' with regard to the future of the canal.

celia sanjur, who heads the christian centre for social
training, doubts that washington will comply since ''the invasion
is evidence that (the united states) attaches little importance
to the rights of peoples.''

the united states invaded panama in 1989 and deposed then head
of government manuel noriega, who was later tried and convicted
on drug charges in the u.s. town of miami.

in his message, endara said that obtaining jurisdiction over
the canal had been ''a permanent preoccupation of the panamanian
nation throughout this century,'' and that ''the agreements our
republic obtained when it demanded and obtained ownership and
administration of the canal waterway are of great scope.''

in treaties signed in 1977 by panamanian head of state general
omar torrijos and then u.s. president james carter, washington
agreed to hand over the administration of the canal and pull out
its civilian officials and military forces from the zone by 31
dec. 1999.

relations between the two countries have been very tense since
the treaties came into effect on oct. 1, 1979, with sectors here
continually accusing the united states of violating the accords.

the denunciations continue. pedro pereira, member of the
national directorate of the opposition revolutionary democratic
party (prd), which was in power when the treaties entered into
effect, told ips that washington was not complying with them.

he said the biggest violation was the 1979 invasion of
panamanian territory, since the treaty stipulated that u.s.
troops should remain stationed along the canal only to defend it
from external attack along with the panamanian military. (more)
----


pereira, an attorney, said that since the dec. 20 invasion,
''we have practically lost sovereignty over the canal and the
entire panamanian territory and, as a result, the treaty has
virtually been renounced.

the endara government was installed with the approval of the
united states in the wake of the invasion which overthrew
noriega's regime. since then, the united states ''unilaterally
carries out the defence of the canal and conducts military
manoeuvres without its panamanian counterpart,'' pereira said.

on becoming president, endara eliminated the army, replacing
it with a new force that functions solely as a police outfit.

on nov. 11, the government will hold a plebiscite on
constitutional reforms which, if approved, will abolish the army
and eliminate a chapter on the defence of territorial sovereignty
contained in the treaties.

this has sparked controversy, with many adversaries of the
reform feeling, like pereira, that ''it would leave the defence
of the canal and of panamanian territorial sovereignty in u.s.
hands.''

in celia sanjur's opinion, the torrijos-carter treaties will
only be complied with ''if there is pressure from panama and if
the nation obtains the international solidarity'' it had in the
mid-1970s when torrijos got the united states to sit at the
negotiation table.

despite the violations imputed to washington, pereira views as
positive the fact that panamanians were able to get rid of ''the
figure of the governor and the application of the colonialist
laws'' in force before 1977 in the canal zone.

since the treaties came into effect, panama has recuperated
about two-thirds of the homes and other buildings in the former
canal zone and almost half of the zone's 1,444 sq. kilometres.
since 1990, the canal's administrator has been a panamanian.

the country also obtains over 600 million dollars per year in
direct and indirect earnings from the canal, as against the 1.9
million dollars it received each year from the united states
between 1903 and 1979 for the use of the waterway.

panama's representative on a tripartite commission which is
analysing alternatives for modernizing the waterway, guillermo
quijano, said in mid-june that two options were being studied for
confronting the difficulties which will arise by the year 2015,
when the canal is expected to function at maximum capacity.

one is constructing a sea level canal, which would cost
between six billion and nine billion dollars. the other is the
building of a third series of sluices, which would admit ships of
up to 200,000 tonnes, next to the two existing sets of two-way
sluices which can be used by ships of up to 45,000 tonnes.

the new sluices would cost about five billion dollars.
(end/ips/trd/so/sh-mso/kb/92)
----


** End of text from cdp:reg.panama **