Negotiators representing the United States and Panama concluded talks on treaties that would transfer control of the Panama Canal to Panama by the end of the century, resolving a source of nationalist grievance dating to the canal's construction. Signed formally by President Carter and General Omar Torrijos weeks later, the agreements provoked fierce debate in the U.S. Senate before narrow ratification.
The Panama Canal had been a flashpoint of Panamanian nationalism since the United States acquired rights to build and control the Canal Zone in 1903 under a treaty many Panamanians regarded as coerced, signed before Panama even had full control over its own negotiating delegation. Riots in 1964 over flag rights in the Canal Zone had left dozens dead and pushed the issue toward the top of Panama's political agenda.
President Jimmy Carter, against considerable domestic political risk, pursued a new settlement, calculating that continued U.S. control was untenable and diplomatically corrosive throughout Latin America. General Omar Torrijos, Panama's military leader, pushed hard for full sovereignty and a firm handover date.
The resulting Torrijos-Carter Treaties set December 31, 1999, as the date of full transfer to Panama, while granting the U.S. rights to intervene militarily to keep the canal open and neutral. Ratification passed the U.S. Senate by just one vote over the required two-thirds margin in 1978, a bruising fight that cost several senators their seats but avoided a much larger crisis in U.S.-Latin American relations.
Key people: Jimmy Carter, Omar Torrijos