Word: canallers
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...fact is that progress has been snail-paced in the two years since Kissinger and Panamanian Foreign Minister Juan Antonio Tack signed a joint statement of principles to launch negotiations on terms for returning the canal...
...longer negotiations continue between U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Ellsworth Bunker and Panamanian Strongman Brigadier General Omar Torrijos Herrera, the more obstacles seem to crop up. A conservative bloc led by South-Carolina's Senator Strom Thurmond flatly opposes surrender of U.S. sovereignty over the canal; 34 votes in the Senate are enough to defeat a treaty embodying the terms of the Bunker negotiations, and at the moment Thurmond's bloc appears to have them. Thurmond is vocally supported on the scene by Zonians-especially the 4,500 U.S. civilians who operate the canal; some of their families have...
Until now military experts have opposed proposals to reduce U.S. bases in the canal from 14 to three and eliminate the Army's inter-American training school. The school has trained officers from all over Latin America, but is criticized by leftists for its anti-guerrilla courses...
...official U.S. view is that there is no reason, military or economic, not to return the 51-mile-long canal. Neither supertankers nor the biggest U.S. aircraft carriers can squeeze through it. Yielding the waterway, moreover, would remove a major irritant in U.S. relations with Latin Americans, who have long resented the second-class status of Panamanians in the zone. But in return for giving up the canal and increasing payments to the Panamanian government for its use, the U.S. wants operating control at least until the beginning of the 21st century...
...negotiations are nevertheless a political booby trap for both sides. The canal may yet become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Ronald Reagan met several months ago in Boca Raton, Fla., with former Panamanian President Arnulfo Arias, whom Torrijos ousted in 1968. Earlier Reagan had accused the Administration of "giving up the defense of the hemisphere on the installment plan." As for Arias, he reportedly promised a softer Panamanian stand if he returned to power. Torrijos seems to accept the Ford Administration's efforts to keep negotiations low-key until after the November elections...