WHO

IMPACT OF THE PANAMA CANAL TREATIES ON THE PANAMA CANAL (continued)

Until January 1, 1990, as stipulated by the Treaty, the Administrator of the Panama Canal Commission was American and the Deputy Administrator was Panamanian, with the roles reversed on that date for the final decade of the Treaty. D.P. McAuliffe (retired U.S. Army General, who had been commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command 1975-1979) served as Administrator for the first ten years, with Fernando Manfredo as Deputy Administrator for the same period.

After rejecting the Noriega regime's nomination for the first Panamanian Administrator in late 1989, President George Bush asked Manfredo to serve as acting Administrator from January 1, 1990, until a suitable nomination was received from Panama. Following the U.S. military operation Just Cause (which began December 20, 1989), Panamanian President Guillermo Endara proposed Gilberto Guardia F. as Administrator. Sworn in on September 20, 1990 (after approval by the U.S. Senate), Guardia served until 1996 when he was succeeded by Alberto Aleman Zubieta. U.S. Deputy Administrators were Ray Laverty and Joseph W. Cornelison.

In August 1998, Aleman Zubieta was also appointed as the first Administrator of the new Panamanian Panama Canal Authority (created in 1997 as the successor entity to the Panama Canal Commission for administering and operating the canal after noon December 31, 1999). His appointment as Administrator of both the U.S. and Panamanian agencies ensured continuity throughout the remainder of the transition period and beyond.

At all levels of the Panama Canal Commission, Panamanians had been participating increasingly in the canal's operation (over 96 percent by mid-1999) in preparation for Panama's assumption of canal ownership and responsibility for its operation and protection at the end of the century.

Jurisdiction

Panama assumed general territorial jurisdiction over the former Canal Zone on October 1, 1979. The Unite States retained criminal jurisdiction over U.S. citizen employees of the Panama Canal Commission in most cases until April 1, 1982. Since then, Panama exercised primary criminal jurisdiction with the understanding that, as a matter of policy, it generally would waive jurisdiction to the United States. U.S. citizen employees and their dependents charged with crimes were entitled to procedural guarantees and were permitted to serve any sentences in the United States in accordance with a reciprocal arrangement.

However, during the political crisis in Panama (mid-1987 through December 1989), the Noriega regime increasingly ignored procedural guarantees of U.S. personnel (of the U. S. military and the Panama Canal Commission alike). The Panama Defense Forces (PDF) harassed U.S. military personnel, their dependents, and civilian employees of the U.S. Forces, as well as U.S. Forces' operations, in numerous documented incidents to the point of threatening deadly force in some incidents.

Economic Factors

During the treaty's life, Panama received the following payments exclusively from canal revenues:

	An annual payment of 30 cents per Panama Canal ton transiting the canal to be adjusted periodically for inflation (Fiscal Year 1980 traffic produced a $54,953,000 payment in this category);
	A fixed annuity of $10 million;
	A fixed annual public services payment ($10 million) for Panama's providing police protection, fire protection, traffic management, street maintenance and cleaning, and garbage collection in the Canal Operating Areas and in specified housing areas; and
	An annual contingent profit payment of up to $10 million in the event Canal operating revenues exceeded Commission expenditures and produced an unbudgeted surplus.

In the first 18 years of the Panama Canal Treaty (at the end of fiscal year 1997 or September 30, 1997, the latest year for which such financial data is currently available), Panama received a total of $1,430,260,225 in treaty-related payments (an average of $79,458,901 annually compared to $2.3 million received annually before Treaty implementation). The $1.4 billion was by far more than the total amount received in the preceding 75 years. Of this total, Panama received $689,914,225 during the first ten years under the Panama Canal Treaty and $740,346,000 in the next eight years; figures for 1998 and 1999 were not available in mid-1999. (Such payments for 1988 and 1989 were held by the U.S. Government in an escrow account following the application of economic sanctions imposed against Panama in 1988 and were transferred to the Government of Panama in 1990.)