Word: canalized
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last week President Reagan announced that the U.S. would withhold $6.5 million in fees collected by the Panama Canal Commission and scheduled to be paid to the Panamanian government this week. The money was held, said Washington, at the request of Delvalle, whom the U.S. continues to recognize as Panama's President. Reagan also suspended trade preferences that will affect $96 million in commerce between the U.S. and Panama. There will be no "business as usual" with the Noriega regime, the President said. Secretary of State George Shultz argued that a severe economic squeeze would force Noriega out. Other officials...
...hardship worsened, Noriega's backers lashed out at Washington. Noting that American forces were staging exercises along the Panama Canal, Foreign Minister Jorge Abadia Arias charged that the U.S. planned to invade the country. The U.S. Southern Command, which has 10,000 troops stationed along the waterway, called the maneuvers routine...
...stroke of noon on Dec. 31, 1999, the U.S. is scheduled to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama forever. When the treaty transferring the waterway was signed in 1977, it was widely denounced in both countries: many Panamanians complained about the protracted timetable, while many Americans, including Ronald Reagan, insisted that the canal should remain in U.S. hands. Today the treaty is again a source of controversy. An embattled General Manuel Antonio Noriega is trying to rally his countrymen by claiming that Washington wants to break the agreement. Meanwhile, some legislators on Capitol Hill are asking whether...
Though much of the treaty is sloppily worded, it is unambiguous on one point: the U.S. has no legal option but to surrender the canal. In 1978, when the U.S. Senate approved the document, an amendment was passed that allows the U.S. to take action to ensure that the canal "remains open, neutral, secure and accessible." But what constitutes a threat to the waterway is not specified, and even if U.S. Marines were dispatched to protect the canal after 1999, it would still belong to Panama. The U.S., of course, could unilaterally abrogate the treaty, but at the cost...
...fact, the U.S. has already given up more than 60% of the Canal Area, as the former Canal Zone is called, since 1979. Panama now operates the railway that serves the facility, nearly all the canal watershed, and the ports of Balboa and Cristobal. U.S. officials in Panama give local workers high marks for their ability to handle complex engineering and piloting tasks. But under Noriega many high-level operational posts have been filled by inept cronies. The result has been mismanagement of the railway and poor road maintenance. Panama has imposed a dubious "lights and buoy" fee on ships...