PANAMA'S PRESIDENT DENOUNCES WASHINGTON
(i While the Johnson administration made full haste to set up double flag poles in the Canal Zone so that the Panamanian colors can be flown side by side with the Stars and Stripes, thus eliminating what the brain trust of Kennedy's successor considers to be Panamats main grievance, the capitalist press in the United States was in full cry over what it. holds to be the real reason for the disturbances in the isthmus; namely Castroism,. They found "agents of Havana" at the bottom of everything although Castro himself is not at present canoeing in the Panama Canal but far away, trying-out the winter sport of throwing snowballs in Moscow.
In Panama on January 15 a thousand university students demonstrated in front of the Presidential Palace demanding abolition of tne 1903 _ treaty, imposed on the country by Theodore Roosevelt, and maintenance of the break in diplomatic relations with the United States until a satisfactory new treaty is negotiated. The State Department sought to main-= ; tain the fiction that the Panamanian government had not broken diploma- ‘tic relations but had only "suspended" them, This posture was intended ito provide President Roberto Chiari with a convenient bridge for retreating from his first angry response to the shooting and wounding of Panamanians by U. S, troops. raion nah re te sat fan RN RM MME a Na
Chiari, however, responded to the student demonstration by pledging , that Panama "would not resume diplomatic relations until Washington had agreed to “negotiate” and not just "discuss" a new treaty, On January 17, ,ithe Panamanian government told the U.S. diplomats to get out of the loountry. They packed their bags and moved into the Canal Zone.
The U.S. State Department sought to inveigle President Chiari into throwing. the blame for the situation on "Castroism." The President, however, although he is a conservative, could not brush away facts that are only too well known to every citizen of Panama. He indicated the. true situation in an interview which he granted Léo Sauvage on January 15 and which appeared in next day's edition of the Paris daily Le Figaro. "yot Much Thatts Perpetual"
"Do you believe, Mr. Journalist," Chiari asked Sauvage, "that anything, perpetual exists in international affairs in our epoch?" Answer=~ ing his own rhetorical question, Chiari said: "Certainly not; there's not much that's perpetual in our time, except what's done in Heaven, But the United States continues imperturbably to oppose all our complaints and admonitions, because a treaty dating from 1903 contains the word tperpetual,! I. am sure of expressing the will of my people in taking the decision not to resume diplomatic relations with the Washington government as long as they have not accepted the idea that we are an adult nation that desires to be considered as such, -. *
On the. State Department attitude that it will not negotiate "under pressure" and that a break in diplomatic relations constitutes completely inacceptable pressure, Chiari said:
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. What an astonishing attitude. Here is the biggest nation of the world, the most powerful militarily, talking about pressure from a small country like mine. How could we react otherwise, and with greater dignity, than by refusing to maintain relations with a government which, each time it invokes the treaty to which it reserves the right of interpretation, it offends our national honor? We are ready to resume relations with Washington at any moment, but we place one. condition on it. One sole, unique condition, which is this; it is necessary that the United States recognize that the world has changed since 1903,'
The current events are not without a background, Chiari pointed out: _
"Long ago, in 1959, there were bloody incidents which you will recall, For us, the Zone is part of the national territory which was merely rented for the construction. of the canal. There could be no question of alienating our sovereignty and renouncing putting up our fleg. The incidents of 1959 begm with a civic parade led by members of the National Assembly, among them the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Aquilino Boyd who is today in charge of the Panamanian delega-= tion Lat the United Nations], But the authorities of the Zone found it impermissible to let the Panamanian flag float in their streets. Blood was spilled, Mr, Eisenhower sent Mr. Merchant here as Mr. Johnson has now just sent Mr. Mann here. Then blood was spilled again, last week, more abundantly than ever. Also more uselessly than ever, because today there do exist other means for stopping an unarmed crowd ~- tear. gas, fire hoses and who knows what else -- rather than firing bullets.!
Chiaria ended the interview by saying: "Friendship and co-operation, that's all the Panamanian people ask for. Friendship and co-operation, . however, are no longer possible today within the framework of the existing treaty."
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