After The Carter - Torrijos Zone Treaty (Panama)
The Twenty Year Transition (1979 - 1999)
-Guillermo (Billy) Ford being attacked by one of Noriega’s goons. May 1989
On December 31, 1979, the Canal Zone created in Panama by the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty came to an end. At the same time, a 20-year transition period started and then ended on December 31, 1999. The Americans turned the Panama Canal over to a Panamanian staff who, at that time, were thought to be unable to take on the duties of managing and maintaining the Canal. Also required on that last day was the halting of any and all American-run operations within this 553-mile area in Panama.
All schools, government offices, and churches had to be dismantled, and the citizens (Zonians) had to decide on whether they wanted to stay in Panama or go to the United States. For many Zonians, the Canal Zone was the only home they had known for generations. For more details about the history and events leading up to the end of the Canal Zone, please read my previous article.
This article will describe what life was like for someone who grew up and had a family within the Canal Zone (CZ). To gain context, I reached out to Joe Wood, who helped found the Panama Canal Museum in 1998 and continues to serve as its president. He is a former Zonian who grew up within the Zone and was there during its last days.
Secret Memorandum: Dated March 19th, 1980 from Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
The House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee today marked up the Panama Canal authorization bill for FY-81. Bob Bauman announced that when the bill comes to the floor, he will submit an amendment that would prohibit Canal Treaty payments pending settlement by Panama of certain old debts. President Royo recently announced that Panama disputed the validity of these debts and would not pay them.
Thibert: Joe, when and where were you born?
Wood: I was born in Panama Hospital in 1937 . My father was an American who went down in the Army in 1922. He met my mother, who was a Panamanian, and, of course, they got married. They had three kids. I was raised in the Canal Zone. Then I went to the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida). I joined the Army after I returned to Panama, and I worked 33 years for the Panama Canal.
Thibert: What was your life like having an American father and Panamanian mother?
Wood: I was one of many in a situation like that. Many Panamanians married Americans. A lot of my friends where in the same category. So, it was not something we noticed. No discrimination. We fit in with our American and Panamanian friends. We had friends on both sides of the Canal. It was actually a blessing to have that type of heritage. We could speak Spanish, and we enjoyed the local culture mixed with the American way of life.
My father adopted Panama as his second home. He had a lot of friends in Panama and enjoyed a number of golf and social clubs. There were no fences or restrictions for Panamanians to come into the Canal Zone. In fact, they had to cross over it to get to the other side of their country. A lot of Americans socialized with the Panamanians who often came into the Canal Zone to play games because they were friends with the Americans.
Thibert: Were there any barriers or restrictions for Panamanians entering the Canal Zone?
Wood: I guess there was a barrier because of the language. Some Panamanians were probably intimidated because they would fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. laws and police. There were no physical barriers. There was just the crossover.
Thibert: What was your job/position at the Panama Canal?
Wood: The final job I had was director of the Office of Executive Administration, which was a senior management policy coordinating position. When the administrator and the deputy administrator were out of the country, I would relieve one of them.
Thibert: How long did it take for you to work up to director?
Wood: I started in 1960. In 1980, I got that position. I retired in 1993 with my wife.
Thibert: You said that your father was an American in the Army. Was he the first generation of your family to live in the Canal Zone?
Wood: Yes. He was in the U.S. Army. Stayed for two years. Then when he got out, he stayed in Panama and worked for the Canal.
My Panamanian grand mother taught Spanish to Americans in the Balboa Canal Zone. My father was an Englishman who use to go from California to Panama on steamships bringing mail back and forth. When he arrived in 1922, he took Spanish lessons and ended up meeting my mother who was the teacher’s daughter. They married eight or nine years after they met.
Secret Memorandum: Dated May 12th, 1977 from National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski
Human Rights in Panama; According to a State Department analysis, the Panamanian government, while fundamentally authoritarian, has been generally responsive to popular interests. The civilian sector is considerably involved in running Panama's day-to-day affairs, and the government has avoided arbitrary imprisonment and unfair trials for political purposes.
While far from a model open society or a traditional liberal democracy, Panama has provided basic guarantees of individual rights and has allowed limited freedom of speech and the press.
Thibert: You were there for a number of tense historical moments, weren’t you?
Wood: Yes. They sure were tense. In 1964….
Thibert: The Flag Riots. Can you tell me about those? What were your personal experiences?
Wood: The situation was that the U.S. government directed that the Panamanian flag fly in certain locations in the Canal Zone as a show of Panamanian sovereignty over these locations. Up until that time, only the U.S. flag had flown in the Zone. One of the locations that the Panamanian flag was to be hung was at administration buildings on each side of the isthmus. The American flag was flown by itself, at a high school, so the governor directed that the flag and pole be taken down. The American high school students objected as they wanted to keep the U.S. flag flying. When a bunch of students from the National Institute of Panama came across the Canal Zone border and met the U.S. students at the high school, it was quite a disturbance.
On their way back to Panama, the Panamanian students started throwing rocks at cars and buildings. By the time they made it back to Panama, apparently the word had spread throughout the country and the riots started. The Panamanians started throwing Molotov cocktails into the Canal Zone. They started shooting and the U.S. Army started shooting back.
That flag incident caused a number of disturbances that lasted for quite a while. Panama broke off diplomatic relations with the United States because of that incident. That started a round of treaty discussions that eventually led to the Carter–Torrijos Treaty (1977) that transferred the Canal to Panama.
Thibert: In your opinion, were the Panamanians’ complaints valid?
Wood: Well, under the 1903 treaty, the United States was granted the rights as if they were sovereign in the Canal Zone. Technically, the treaty made that area a U.S. territory. Panama wanted to claim the territory, naturally, as their own.
So symbolically, it was Kennedy who directed that the Panamanian flag fly with the American flag at certain locations in the Canal Zone as a symbol of sovereignty over what the treaty granted. It was a situation where the U.S. wanted to appease Panama to an extent.
The fact that the American kids did not want the U.S. flagpole in front of the high school to be torn down is what triggered the civil disturbances.
Thibert: Tell me about the Panamanian Nationalism Group that was present before the treaty. Did they understand that it was not about Panamanians but really about the government of the United States?
Wood: It was mostly against the U.S. government. Being there, we would get the vitriol. We would drive into Panama and see “Yankees Go Home” signs. There were occasional disturbances and protests. The treaty solved a lot of those problems.
Thibert: During the 1960s, the United States was experiencing a number of Civil Right protests. Did any of those events bleed over into Panama?
Wood: We didn’t discriminate among the races. I remember when I was a very young boy, I saw a water fountain for Colored people and a water fountain for White people. There was a system that paid white Americans in gold and all others in silver. It seemed that the Canal Zone mirrored the United States policy of discrimination until the late 1950s.
As for as Panamanians, light skinned or dark skinned, in my high school class, we had Americans and Panamanians and we were all friends. I did not notice until I moved to the United States that I felt discrimination. Never felt that in Panama. We had different nationalities: Indian, Chinese, European, Latin American. There was nothing unusual of getting together with people with different backgrounds and nationalities.
Most of my lifelong friends are from my high school. One of them became the vice president of Panama. (Guillermo Ford, 1992–1994). He was beaten by Noriega’s guards before getting into office. (see above image)
Secret Memorandum: Dated June 17th, 1977 from Cyrus Vance
Panama Negotiations: The Panama Canal negotiations recessed today so that the Panamanian negotiators might return to Panama for consultation. Before the recess they presented a rather emotional statement of concerns and then delivered to us a paper with some specific suggestions dealing with the problems of board membership and direction of the entity to operate the Canal and with the status and privileges of the US employees of the Canal company. These are different from those we had earlier proposed but we believe they are manageable and we should be able to find a suitable middle ground.
The massive problem which still remains unresolved is that of the economic arrangements. Panama continues to think in excessive terms and we will have to see if some way can be found to combine a mutually agreeable annual payment provision in the treaty itself with a separate but probably contemporaneous arrangement for a justifiable economic aid package involving the US, international agencies and probably other sources. We have not yet begun to deal with this problem and it will have to await the arrival of a new economic team from Panama for discussions of this matter.
Thibert: When did you learn that the U.S. and Panamanian government were to begin discussing the future of the Canal?
Wood: There were two rounds of discussions. The first was in 1964 and included Henry Kissinger. That first round produced a treaty that was refused by both governments. This was in 1968. The second round started in 1975–1976, which produced the Treaty of 1977 that turned over the Canal to Panama.
Thibert: Did you believe that a formal treaty would be agreed upon after the initial failure?
Wood: It was inevitable that a treaty would be made. There was a ground swell with support from all the Latin American countries. The U.S. was feeling a lot of pressure for having a colonial enclave in the middle of a country. We knew it was coming. We didn’t know that the Canal would be turned over entirely to Panama. We suspected that Panama would have more jurisdiction over the Canal Zone, but at the same time, have more of a partnership in the operation of the Canal. What happened was the entire Canal Zone was disestablished and Panama had complete jurisdiction over their territory. It was completely transferred without any further U.S. involvement.
Thibert: When negotiations were completed, what was your opinion of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter?
Wood: I don’t think anyone liked Jimmy Carter in the Canal Zone because he essentially took away our homes. We grew up there. We had several generations of family there. We worked there. What he was doing was taking away our way of life. It was a selfish viewpoint, of course. We wanted to preserve what we had. But for that reason, no one liked Carter. We understand, of course, that realistically it had to be done. At the time, we were all very upset at the prospect of losing our way of life. It was a good life.
Thibert: What is your opinion of him now that time has passed?
Wood: He probably did the right thing. I still wonder whether or not the United States could have continued in some form of partnership with Panama, but perhaps history has proven that Panamanians can run the canal pretty well. He was probably justified in what he did. He certainly is an honorable man in how he lived his life. At the time, though, he was not a popular person in the Canal Zone.
Thibert: The leader of Panama at this time was Military Leader Omar Torrijos. What was your opinion of him?
Wood: The people of Panama loved him because he was a benevolent dictator. He took care of the people. He really took care of the poor. He wasn’t in any way a dictator that would be known as malicious. He was good for the country. He wanted to negotiate the treaty with Carter. When he died, the military dictatorship continued with Noriega who was not so benevolent.
Thibert: Where you asked to train your incoming Panamanian replacement?
Wood: The good thing about the treaty is that it had a 20-year transition period from 1979 to 1999. During that time, the Canal administration was put in place with a whole range of training programs. It provided different opportunities for Panamanians to rise through the ranks to management positions, so by the time the treaty ended in 1999, more of the management positions would be occupied by Panamanians and the transition would be fairly seamless.
We had a system of merit promotions, except Panamanians were given a 10-point preference. When an American and Panamanian were vying for the same job, the Panamanian would get preference. That guaranteed that more Panamanians would get the jobs and move up the ranks. We also instituted a situation that any promotion would have to have two Panamanians and one American on a review board, which almost guaranteed that the Panamanian would get the job. Although merit was factored in and sometimes an American got a job, but over a 20-year period no new Americans moved into the lower-level jobs. Panamanians rose through the ranks. By 1999, most of the major managerial and supervisory positions were filled by Panamanians.
Combat Footage of Operation Just Cause - December 1989 (The end of Noriega’s Dictatorship)
Thibert: What was life in the Canal Zone like during the Noriega years?
Wood: That was pretty bad. Starting in 1987, when Noriega was exposed by one of his Colonials as being a drug lord and accused him of killing a political opponent. That is when the riots started. Civil disturbances all the time. For two years, Noriega kept up the pressure on the Canal because he kept passing that the U.S. would not transfer the Canal to Panama. He was causing so many problems that the U.S. imposed sanctions on Panama. This was about 1988–1989, and this meant none of the Panama payments could go to Panama. This equaled $61–$66 million a year in addition to the direct yearly payments. Now they were going into escrow in New York.
This also meant that Panamanian employees were not paying taxes. Noriega started threatening them and denying services. For them, it was very traumatic. Families were threatened. We had to provide bus services for them.
Thibert: Was anyone in your family personally impacted?
Wood: In October 1989, a Panamanian informant from the Panamanian Defense Force came to me and showed me a list of 20 Canal officials who were on a hit list. They were to be captured, along with their families, and taken to a remote site in the interior of Panama. In the case of Noriega’s capture, this was a way for him to have some hostages. We had the list verified that it was valid.
This was three months before the U.S. invasion of Panama. What we did was to inform everyone on the list. I was on that list. We put bars on our windows. Steel doors. We gave everyone a phone that had a direct line to the security office.
The night of the invasion in 1989, an 18-wheeler pulled up in front of my house. I called the administrator and asked if he had heard anything. He told me that he had just been informed by the headquarters of the Southern Command that the U.S. was invading in half an hour.
Troops came out and surrounded my house. I did not know if they were Panamanian or U.S. troops. After an hour, I opened the front door slightly and I heard, “Get back into my house, Sir” which told me that I was being protected by Americans. They did that for every family on the hit list.
-Panama Canal Handover Ceremony - 12/31/1999
Thibert: What was going through your mind on December 31, 1999? What was your experience?
Wood: I had mixed emotions. It was sad to see the U.S. leave Panama after almost a century. On the other hand, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I was part of the process of training the Panamanians. It was prideful to see how the transition from the Americans to Panamanians was completely seamless. You would not have been able to tell from one day to the next who was in charge. The ships kept coming through. Nothing stopped, nothing stalled. It was a perfect transition.
Secret Memorandum: Dated August 16th, 1977 from Cyrus Vance
Panama Update: We are encouraged by President Ford’s strong endorsement of the Panama agreement, after his briefing by Ambassador Linowicz and General Brown. Senators Thurmond and Helms will visit Panama Thursday and Friday preparatory to their appearance on Meet the Press Sunday — a sequel to last week's appearance by Ambassadors Bunker and Linowitz.
From a discreet sounding in Panama of a source close to General Torrijos (Ambassador Gabriel Lewis, Panama’s Ambassador to the US) we deduce that General Torrijos would probably:
•prefer a signing ceremony in Panama, perhaps on Contadora Island (he considers the security problem fully manageable even in the City);
•as a second choice, agree to a site somewhere in the US, probably outside Washington;
•find least attractive a signing ceremony in a Third country, which would be difficult to explain though if it were to be done, Colombia would be the first choice, Costa Rica the second.
Concerning treaty drafting, good progress continues. We still hope our team can wind up in Panama not later than Saturday evening although further work would have to be done here.
Thibert: Did you have doubts about Panamanians taking the reins?
Wood: Earlier on in my career, I witnessed first-hand how Panamanians seemed not to understand the word maintenance. It seemed there was a tendency to not want to put money into maintenance. They would rather buy something new. Our concern was that the Canal would not be maintained. Later on, again through the 20-year transition through the various systems of management that were created by the U.S., they learned and did a good job with maintaining the Canal.
Thibert: Did you know anyone who stayed behind?
Wood: There were about 40 or so American pilots at the time of the transfer of the Canal who decided to stay in Panama. The pilot force was about 200. Some are still working. Some of the people like me who married a Panamanian stayed because they had family there. They felt comfortable there.
Thibert: How often do you go back to Panama?
Wood: It was about a year ago, but we Zonians meet every July in Orlando. About 2,000 to 3,000 of us.
Thibert: When you visit, do you feel that Panama is still home or is home where you are right now?
Wood: This is home. The Canal Zone doesn’t look anything like it did while we were there.