Word: panama
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...main item on the agenda at Lima was the world economy, the conferees spent a great deal of time on politics, mostly with a decidedly anti-American cast. Such "nonaligned" nations as North Korea and North Viet Nam were welcomed as full members of the conference. So was Panama, where U.S. control of the Canal Zone drew the sympathy of the delegates. Excluded from participation were South Korea and the Philippines, apparently because both governments permit American troops on their soil...
...Previously the U.S. had cast just seven vetoes, including two in protection of Israel and one rejecting the loss of U.S. sovereignty over the Panama Canal. The Soviet Union, by contrast, has cast 110 vetoes...
Torrijos has tried to restrain Panamanians, particularly the country's 24,000 volatile students, from launching assaults on the 39,200 "Zonians"-American servicemen, their families and employees of the Panama Canal Zone Co. "If it was not for this direct contact between Torrijos and the students, there could be a confrontation," says one young Panamanian activist. Torrijos' own reassuring refrain is that "we should not look at things negatively." He has tried to enlist the support of members of the Organization of American States and Third World countries of the United Nations behind his sovereignty campaign...
...Panama's reason for wanting the canal and the zone is not hard to understand. The zone is a lush green enclave of middle-class prosperity surrounded by teeming poverty. Within it are seven golf courses, riding clubs, movie theaters, yacht clubs and tennis courts. Zonians buy their food and household goods at commissaries, where prices are often lower than in the U.S. Fresh oysters and other Stateside delicacies are flown into the area's genteel clubs and restaurants. It is a world of Southern comfort, and Southern mores. The chief beneficiary of all this...
Many Zonians seem resigned to the likelihood of bloodshed. A few have left; but most are digging in. They avoid nearby Panama City. "Even little children in some parts of the city throw stones at us when they see our Canal Zone license plates," says one Zonian housewife. "One day it could be grenades." Like the Roosevelt-minded lobby in Congress, the Zonians' stated reluctance to give up the Canal has an anachronistic-but ominous-ring...