Loosing the Panama Canal

In 1978 President Carter negotiated two illegal treaties with General Omar Torrijos, then Panama’s dictator, to return the Panama Canal to Panama. The treaties are invalid because the Panama Canal was purchased from Panama by the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty "in perpetuity," which means that the Canal was to remain in U.S. hands forever. There was no need for the Carter-Torrijos treaties. The treaties are also illegal because the treaties signed by President Carter and ratified by the U.S. Senate are not the same treaties signed by Torrijos.

Writing in the August 2 issue of the New American, retired Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, notes that "the treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate guaranteed to the United States the right to use military force, with or without Panama’s consent, to keep the canal open." Conversely, those signed by Torrijos stated "the U.S. could not rightfully intervene in the Canal without Panama’s cooperation." Dr. Charles Breecher, one of the State Department’s most knowledgeable treaty authorities, called the Carter-Torrijos Treaties "the greatest fraud ever perpetrated against the United States and against the American people."

Under President Torrijos, the Panamanian legislature passed Law No. 5 in January, 1998, which gave the Chinese control over the entire Panama Canal when the U.S. pulls out on December 31 this year. It is not too late to stop this madness. On May 3rd Mireya Moscoso was elected as Panama’s first female president. She is pro U.S., and like the majority of the Panamanian people, including many political, business and intellectual leaders, wants the U.S. military to stay in Panama. Not surprisingly, president Clinton is doing nothing to work with President Moscoso to stop his Chinese friends from taking over Panama and putting America at risk.

With God, all things are possible. Call your Representatives and Senators and tell them to revoke these illegal treaties and stop the U.S. withdrawal from Panama. V mc