Word: canals
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sold in more menacing surroundings. On the Zeedijk, a narrow enclosed street near the central railroad station where few residents walk after dark, peddlers sidle up to passersby, within sight of policemen patrolling in pairs. On Dam Straat, Amsterdam's other notorious drug row, a span over a placid canal dubbed the "pill bridge" served as the main bazaar for illicit prescription narcotics until police cracked down recently...
...down the S-shaped isthmus. Last week's general strike closed hundreds of businesses in the provinces. "We were frankly surprised," said Ricardo Arias Calderon, an opposition leader. "The shutdown had a national character we hadn't expected." The protest, however, did not affect activity along the Panama Canal, which grosses up to $500 million a year...
...unfettered. Some 10,000 military personnel are attached to the Panama-based U.S. Southern Command, Washington's military headquarters and prime listening post for Latin America. From SOUTHCOM, the U.S. can dispatch spy planes to overfly Nicaragua, monitor sensitive communications and military movements in the region and ensure the canal's smooth operation. As Panama's former intelligence chief, Noriega has ( also worked intimately with the Central Intelligence Agency. Says a State Department official: "The general figures his work with the agency is his insurance...
With Panama in turmoil and U.S.-Panamanian relations at their lowest ebb since the rancorous canal negotiations, the outcome is anything but certain. A Philippines-style ending, with Noriega slinking into premature retirement, seems unlikely at this point. The U.S. has far less leverage over the general than it did over Ferdinand Marcos, since Panama receives significantly less U.S. aid and its service-based economy is in relatively healthy condition, although some nervous bankers have recently withdrawn funds. Panama's opposition is largely fragmented and directionless, unlike its counterpart in South Korea...
...contra rebels primarily by pointing to Nicaragua's lack of democracy. Administration credibility would suffer if the U.S. appeared to be too cozy with dictators. Second, Noriega's attempts to whip up anti-American sentiment and to court countries hostile to the U.S. raise worries about the Panama Canal's future. "Can you imagine what it would be like to have the canal in the hands of a Lebanon-like country?"asks a U.S. official. Whatever pressure the U.S. decides to bring, one thing is evident. Says Gabriel Lewis Galindo, a former Panamanian diplomat who heads the opposition's lobbying...