Campaigning on the Canal

Bending a little, the U.S. last week assured Panama of a "full review and reconsideration" of the 1903 canal treaty as soon as diplomatic relations between the two countries are restored.

Bending not at all, Panama replied that the U.S. must commit itself in advance to a revised treaty, and broke off all mediation talks. Before the OAS Council in Washington, Panama's Ambassador Miguel Moreno Jr. formally accused the U.S. of "unprovoked armed attacks." He then demanded that the OAS invoke the 1947 Rio Treaty, which commits all hemisphere nations to come to the aid of a member country threatened by aggression.

In raging tones, Moreno told how "the voice of the machine gun" was the U.S. answer to "Panamanian loyalty," how Yankee bullets "sowed death in the ranks" of Panama's students during the Jan. 9 riots. The U.S., cried Moreno, is a nation "drunk with power. Panama's cause is the cause of all the Americas."

The Americas, as represented by the assembled OAS ambassadors, greeted the outburst in uncomfortable silence.

Though many Latin American diplomats sympathize with Panama's desire for a new canal treaty, the prospect of a drawn-out OAS squabble dismays them. A U.S. official called the aggression charge "preposterous," and Panama has virtually no chance of getting the two-thirds vote necessary for any OAS sanctions. Rather than that, diplomats sought, as a next step, to send an investigating committee to Panama to study the charges. Nevertheless, the Panamanians seem determined to press on with the fight.

With the May 10 presidential elections in Panama drawing ever closer, the canal is the campaign's No. 1 issue. While President Roberto F. Chiari is constitutionally prohibited from running again, he does not dare take a soft line for fear of lessening his party's chances. Ambassador Moreno is an opposition candidate himself--and his fire-breathing OAS speech drew loud cheers back home that could not be ignored by the six other candidates. As one irate Latin American diplomat put it in Washington last week: "The Panamanians are running their campaign in the halls of the OAS."

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