U.S. to Reduce Panama Forces, Leave by 1999
The United States will reduce its military force in Panama to 6,000 men and women by 1995 and remove them all by 1999, the Pentagon announced Thursday.
At present, there are some 10,000 members of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps stationed there, said Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams.
The reductions are part of the process of turning the Panama Canal over to the Republic of Panama on Dec. 31, 1999. The 1977 Panama Canal treaties set that date for the troop withdrawal and for the transfer of all U.S. military facilities to Panama.
There were 22,750 U.S. troops sent to Panama for Operation Just Cause, which lasted from Dec. 20, 1989, to Jan. 31, 1990. President Bush ordered the troops in to seize Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, who is now serving a 40-year sentence in a U.S. prison for a drug trafficking conviction last year.
A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said most of the first to be withdrawn will be Army troops.
Some 10 major military installations and 4,800 buildings on about 85,000 acres of land are expected to be handed over to Panama.
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