Sections for: canal-treaties
1. panama/tra01/panama_mu.htm

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New Canal Treaties

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Meanwhile, pressure intensified over the canal question. In 1970 Torrijos had rejected U.S. revisions of the 1967 treaties, but in 1971 he reopened negotiations. By 1977 they resulted in two new treaties. The Panama Canal Treaty provided for continued U.S. operation, maintenance, and defense of the canal until the end of 1999 and granted Panama a percentage of the tolls. The neutrality treaty stipulated that all nations have access to the canal but that the United States defend it indefinitely. Although extreme groups in Panama objected that the treaties did not go far enough, Panama ratified them in October 1977. Opposition was also widespread in the U.S., where many felt that the United States was giving away its rightful property and that, in Panamanian hands, the canal might be less efficiently run. Nevertheless, both treaties were ratified in 1978, and they took effect the following year.

General Torrijos stepped down as chief of government in 1978; the newly elected president, Aristides Royo was forced to resign in July 1982, and the military held de facto control until May 1984, when Nicolas Ardito Barletta was elected president. He resigned in 1985 and was succeeded by Eric Arturo Delvalle. Despite constitutional reforms, the military, led by General Manuel Antonio Noriega, continued to wield extraordinary power, even after February 1988, when a U.S. grand jury indicted Noriega for drug trafficking. The United States then launched a campaign of economic and political pressure aimed at removing him from office. In May 1989, after U.S. observers reported that an opposition candidate, Guillermo Endara, had been elected president, the Noriega government nullified the vote.

Noriega suppressed a military coup attempt in October 1989, but two months later 24,000 U.S. troops invaded Panama and installed Endara as president. Captured and flown to the U.S. in January 1990, Noriega was convicted in Miami, Florida, on drug and racketeering charges in April 1992. The U.S. promised Panama $1 billion to repair the damage caused by the invasion and by earlier economic sanctions. The Endara administration, however, was plagued by alleged coup plots, increasing crime and drug use, and a persistently poor economy, although the cocaine trade continued to flourish. In November, voters rejected a series of constitutional changes backed by Endara, including one to abolish the army. Ernesto Perez Balladares won the 1994 presidential elections.
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