Under the treaties signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter and Panama's leader Omar Torrijos, the United States agreed to transfer the canal by the end of 1999 while retaining the right to defend its neutrality. The US Senate ratified them by a single vote more than the needed two-thirds. A ceremony marking the handover had been held on December 14, attended by Carter. The Panama Canal Authority has since expanded the canal with a new set of locks, opened in 2016.
The United States had built the canal between 1904 and 1914 and controlled a ten-mile-wide Canal Zone that cut Panama in two, with its own laws, police and schools. Panamanian resentment grew, and in January 1964, riots over the right to fly Panama's flag in the zone left more than 20 Panamanians and four American soldiers dead.
Negotiations dragged on for years before Carter and Torrijos signed the treaties on September 7, 1977. In the United States they were deeply controversial; opponents, including Ronald Reagan, argued, "We built it, we paid for it, it's ours." The Senate approved them in 1978 by 68 votes to 32. Over the following two decades, the Canal Zone was abolished and American bases closed.
At the ceremony on December 14, 1999, Carter and Panama's president, Mireya Moscoso, signed the documents, and on December 31 the canal passed fully into Panamanian hands. Many Panamanians celebrated in the streets that night. Since then, the canal has been run profitably, and traffic grew enough to justify the new locks for larger ships.
Key people: Mireya Moscoso, Jimmy Carter, Omar Torrijos