Yet a bruising fight for Senate ratification lies ahead
In the sun-swept presidential suite of Panama City's Holiday Inn, overlooking a bay speckled with shrimp boats, the mood was clearly jubilant. Chief Panamanian Negotiator Romulo Escobar Bethancourt jumped to his feet and reached across the table to grasp the outstretched hands of U.S. Negotiators Ellsworth Bunker and Sol Linowitz. With a smile that seemed as broad as the canal over which they had been arguing for many months, Escobar proclaimed: "This is good. Here are the people who did it."
That it was done was something of a miracle. After 13 years of often bitter negotiations, "principles of an agreement" on a Panama Canal Treaty were finally signed last week. If the treaty is formally approved—and that could prove a very big "if'—the fabled "Big Ditch," supreme symbol of American ingenuity and determination for generations, will gradually come under Panama's control.
Panama's strongman, General Omar Torrijos Herrera, had predicted that satisfying all parties would be about as difficult as pleasing the "princess who had big feet and asked a shoemaker to find her a shoe small on the outside and large inside." But the negotiators kept hammering away until the shoe seemed to fit. The treaty will be formally signed later this month or in early September. Torrijos has invited all Latin American heads of state, as well as President Carter, to Panama City for the event, and Carter has indicated that he is willing to go. After the signing ceremony comes what is likely to be the toughest part of all. The accord must be approved by a plebiscite in Panama and by a two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate, which promises to be a bruising battle.
The treaty is very much a compromise —neither a triumph nor a defeat for either side. Not only does it settle a nagging quarrel with Panama, it also removes a major irritant in U.S. relations with Latin America, which regards American control of the canal as a humiliating relic of the colonial era. It also assured continued U.S. control over a long transitional period; there is to be no radical, overnight shift of authority. Said Escobar: "Getting control of the Canal Zone and the canal is one of Panama's oldest national desires. To generation after generation of Panamanians, the canal has symbolized the country's national patrimony—in the hands of foreigners. We developed a kind of national religion over the canal." Linowitz told TIME, "In the world as a whole, Panama is regarded as a colonial enclave. The treaty sets off a whole new relationship between the U.S. and Latin America. We can prove how a great nation can deal magnanimously with a small nation at a time when Third World and North-South relations are at stake."