FREE ESSAY ON TRANSFER OF THE PANAMA CANAL

TRANSFER OF THE PANAMA CANAL

Transfer of the Panama Canal
Skepticism and controversy have surrounded the Panama Canal's recent turnover by the
United States to Panama. The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, spans 51 miles across
Panama from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Considered to be the biggest civil
engineering project in history, the canal shortened the trip from San Francisco to New
York by 8,000 miles. It is navigated by fourteen thousand ships a year, four percent of
the world's maritime commerce. 
Although the United States picked up the $352 million price tag and it's very existence
is credited to former President Teddy Roosevelt, Panama still considered the canal
rightfully theirs. Roosevelt engineered its independence from Colombia in 1903 so he
could build the canal. In 1977, then President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader at the
time General Omar Torrijos formed a treaty that would revert the ownership of the canal
and the 10-mile Canal Zone surrounding it back to Panama on December 31, 1999. 
The 22 years long process of turning over responsibility for the operation,
administration, and defense of the canal officially ended with the withdraw of the last
10,000 U.S. troops from the canal zone. The handover of the Corozal military installation
to Panama was also a symbol of Panama's growing sovereignty, although a small number of
soldiers will remain as part of the U.S. Embassy's military assistance team. 
The new President, Mireya Moscoso, goal is to change a world-class location into a
world-class country, technologically literate and future oriented. Moscoso comes into
office at a time when Panama is trying to rediscover itself. Although it's economy is not
totally dependent on the canal, it's self-image depends on whether the newly-appointed
members of the Panama Canal Authority can make the canal a valuable money-making resource
instead of being run on a non-profit basis as in the past. One of her most difficult
tasks will be to protect the canal's neutrality by guarding it from political corruption
and mismanagement. The economy is also at risk with unemployment rates at 13% and the
closing of U.S. military bases, which may raise that even higher. 
The security of the Panamanian-controlled canal is a major concern for both Moscoso and
the United Sates, who has the right to defend the canal with military force under the
Treaty On the Permanent Neutrality of the canal, but only if canal operations are
jeopardized. On southern border regions of Columbia are leftist guerrillas, one of the
most dangerous security threat to the undeveloped democracy. The Darian region of the
Colombian rain forest, very close to the border, is a well-known supply and rest area for
guerrillas and the Colombian paramilitary is slowly forcing them out of the forest and
sometimes over the Panamanian border. The risk of submarine attacks has pushed the
government to consider spending $12 million on the restoration of a second-world-war
anti-torpedo dam. 
The nation's army was dissolved following the 1989 U.S. invasion to unseat military
strongman Manuel Noriega. The country since has relied on a national police force,
currently 18,000 strong. A poll of 1,200 Panamanians by the La Prensa newspaper showed 70
percent believe Panama is not capable of defending the strategic waterway. More than 72
percent said Panama needs the United States to protect the canal and 68 percent opposed
the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Authorities, however, have insisted that Panama is ready
to defend the canal without the U.S. military, which had maintained a presence here since
1903 when the country became independent of Colombia.
A more serious problem facing the United States is the loss of U.S. military bases, which
served as headquarters for U.S. drug-fighting efforts in the region. About 2,000 planes a
year took off from Howard Air Force Base to hunt out drug labs and mysterious landing
strips in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities worry
that Colombian guerrillas will help drug traffickers ship more cocaine through Panama en
route to the United States.