Panama: Crossroads of Empires · Episode 13 of 24 · 22 min
Torrijos: How a General Talked America Into Giving the Canal Back
After a 1968 coup, General Omar Torrijos turned Panama's grievance over the American Zone into a global campaign. The 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties abolished the Canal Zone and set a handover for December 31, 1999, ratified by a narrow Senate vote. The episode also covers the repression of his regime and the mystery of his 1981 death.
Who's who
- Omar Torrijos+1 more episodePopulist military ruler of Panama, 1968-81; won the canal treaties
- Arnulfo Arias+1 more episodePresident overthrown 11 days into his 1968 term
- Jimmy Carter+12 more episodesU.S. President who signed the 1977 treaties
- Sol LinowitzChief U.S. treaty negotiator
- Ellsworth BunkerChief U.S. treaty negotiator
- Héctor GallegoColombian priest disappeared by the regime in 1971
- Floyd BrittonStudent leader killed on Coiba Island in 1969
- Dennis DeConcini+1 more episodeSenator who authored the contentious reservation
Where it happens
- Panama City, Panama+6 more episodesHosted the UN Security Council in 1973
- Coiba Island, PanamaWhere Floyd Britton was killed
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesTreaties signed at the OAS in 1977
- Coclé, PanamaSite of Torrijos's fatal plane crash
Timeline
- October 11, 1968National Guard overthrows Arnulfo Arias
- March 1973Torrijos hosts UN Security Council; U.S. casts a lone veto
- September 7, 1977Torrijos and Carter sign the two treaties
- March-April 1978Senate ratifies both treaties 68-32 with the DeConcini reservation
- October 1, 1979Treaties take effect; the Canal Zone is abolished
- July 31, 1981Torrijos dies in a plane crash
Still debated
The claim that Carter's moral realism averted a war is an interpretation, set against a strategic-pragmatism reading and doubts about how real the guerrilla threat was. Torrijos is seen as both reformer and strongman. Sabotage allegations about his death are unproven.
← PreviousMartyrs' Day 1964: The Flag That Doomed the Canal Zone — An EyewitnessNext →The Rise of Noriega: The CIA's Man Who Became America's Most Wanted
Connected episodes in other series
Bread and Power: Wheat and the Politics of GrainThe Politics of Produce · Episode 11Also features Jimmy Carter
How Carter's Human Rights Push Lost IranTwo Parties, One Coup · Episode 5Also features Jimmy Carter
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the Rise of the Moral MajorityA Wall of Separation · Episode 9Also features Jimmy Carter
The Lottery and the End: The Botched Draw and the Draft's Last DaysGreeting: America and the Draft · Episode 11Also features Jimmy Carter