Carter Blasts Naysayers at Canal Handoff

Standing before mammoth container ships rising and falling on their path between the seas Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter witnessed the ceremonial transfer of the Panama Canal, an act he set in motion 22 years ago.

Top U.S. officials turned down invitations to attend after conservatives in the United States predicted that Panama will mismanage the canal once it ceases to be American at noon Dec. 31.

But Carter, the official head of a 29-member U.S. delegation that included Army Secretary Louis Caldera and Ambassador Simon Ferro, criticized the doubters, describing U.S. control of the canal as a vestige of colonialism.

“In my country and in this one there were demagogues who exaggerated problems and spoke about catastrophic events,” he said. “There are still some in my country spreading false stories about security of the canal.”

Carter expressed confidence that Panama will do a good job running the waterway. He was warmly applauded when he said in Spanish: “A new relationship now begins between your country and mine.”

The hand-over marks the end of a relationship between the two nations that dates to Panama’s birth as an independent country in 1903, when it broke away from Colombia. The U.S. government took over the canal project, which was completed in 1914.

The deal gave the canal and a strip of land bordering it to the United States. But under the 1977 treaties signed by Carter and Gen. Omar Torrijos, the late Panamanian strongman, the Americans have been gradually pulling out.

More than 20 years ago, Carter was criticized in the U.S. for signing the treaties with Torrijos, who 10 years earlier had come to power through a military coup.

The treaties transfer to Panama 360,240 acres of real estate that made up the Canal Zone, a fenced-in U.S. civilian and military enclave with schools, churches and federal laws. Its crown jewel was the canal, a 50-mile engineering marvel that raises ships from one ocean and deposits them in another through a system of water locks and a man-made lake.

About 14,000 ships pass through the canal every year, steered by Panamanian or U.S. pilots, and pay more than $540 million in tolls. Altogether, about 800,000 ships have transited the canal.

Panama’s president, Mireya Moscoso, praised what she called “the consolidation of our sovereignty and the recovery of our national territory.”

“Our final objective is to guarantee safe, efficient and uninterrupted operation of the waterway to satisfy our customers and to benefit our country,” she said.

With a light rain falling, the ceremony at the Miraflores Locks began with Carter, Moscoso, the king of Spain and six Latin American presidents riding atop a “mule,” a machine that tows ships into the locks.

After a tour of the locks and the ceremonial passing of a Panamanian ship loaded with children in traditional Panamanian clothing, Carter and Moscoso signed a document commemorating the occasion.

Officially, the U.S. presence ends Dec. 31, but the ceremonial turnover was moved forward to avoid conflict with millennium activities.

In Washington, President Clinton expressed a “continuing commitment” to the canal’s security and a determination that the strategic waterway remain open.

But his absence at the ceremony upset many in Panama, who said he was succumbing to pressure from U.S. conservatives. Clinton insisted that his decision had nothing to do with politics.