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The Zonians' dismay at the Carter Administration's "giveaway" of the Canal Zone burst into the open at a flag-lowering ceremony at Balboa High School. "Jimmy stinks," chanted a group of American students standing outside the school as the U.S. flag was lowered. Zonians joked that Foul Play, the film showing at the local theater, was grimly appropriate; the movie was replaced the day after the turnover by El Expreso de los Espias, a spy film starring Robert Shaw and Lee Marvin that was titled Avalanche Express in the U.S. Shortly before the switch in sovereignty, many Americans sported T shirts with defiant emblems. One pictured a green monster raising its middle finger and the legend TO JIMMY FROM THE CANAL ZONE.
About 500 Zonian workers and their families have flown back to the U.S. Those who are staying are apprehensive about the future. Panamanians, who already constitute about 75% of the zone's work force, are being trained to replace them. Until the Panamanians are ready, American technicians are needed to operate the waterway. And until 1990, an American will serve as the canal's chief administrator, with a Panamanian deputy; after that, the posts will be reversed. Says Deputy Administrator Fernando Manfredo: "We need to train Panamanians, but instead of being ready in 20 years, I feel we can be ready to take over by 1990."
That may not be soon enough for the most nationalistic Panamanians, who oppose the provisions that give the U.S. the military right to guarantee the canal's security in perpetuity. Lieut. General Dennis McAuliffe is retiring as commander of the 9,200 U.S. troops who will remain in bases near the canal. As the takeover neared, he expressed concern: "I know they will be coming in here planting little Panamanian flags all over the place. Some will even be planting flowers. I just hope they are not going to be planting rocks."
McAuliffe, who will stay on in Panama as the first American administrator of a new canal commission, was referring to the nationalistic riots that helped to persuade the U.S. that it should consider restoring the zone to Panama's control.
By and large, the transition went smoothly. At the stroke of midnight on the appointed day, a team of Panamanian telecommunications workers, led by Torrijo's brother Mardin, took over the Balboa post office from American officials.
Over the next 30 months, Panamanians will assume full control over courts, police and prisons. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government is trying to make things as comfortable as possible for the remaining Zonians. They will have PX privileges at the army bases to compensate for their loss of the subsidized commissary once run by the now defunct Panama Canal Co. They will also receive free postage, and schooling for their children will be provided by the Pentagon. Said Major General Harold Parfitt, the 17th and last governor of the zone, who is going home to Texas: "There will be no tomorrows, only yesterdays, for the Canal Zone."