Torrijos-Carter Treaties: 49 Years Since the Agreement That Returned Panama’s Sovereignty Over the Canal

Panama is marking 49 years since the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the agreements that set the country on a gradual path to recovering control of its territory and taking over administration of the interoceanic waterway.

On Sept. 7, 1977, Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos Herrera and U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed the accords. For generations of Panamanians, the signing put a date on the end of a longstanding national demand. The treaties covered more than the operation of a major maritime route. They represented the gradual recovery of territory that had remained under U.S. control for more than seven decades and had physically divided the country.

Twenty-two years after the signing, at noon on Dec. 31, 1999, Panama assumed full control of the Canal. The Panamanian flag then came to represent not only ownership of the waterway, but also the responsibility of managing one of the world’s most important points of trade.

The roots of the dispute reached back to 1903, shortly after Panama separated from Colombia, when the country signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The agreement gave Washington perpetual control of the Canal Zone, a strip of territory around the waterway with separate laws, authorities and economy. Although the Canal transformed maritime transport and generated economic activity, its enclave within Panama increasingly fueled public discontent. Crossing the zone meant encountering a border inside the country itself.

That division fed decades of sovereignty claims. Tensions reached a painful peak on Jan. 9, 1964, when protests over the right to raise the Panamanian flag in the Canal Zone left more than 20 Panamanians and four Americans dead. The date became known nationally as Martyrs’ Day and marked a turning point in Panama-U.S. relations. After decades of diplomatic efforts, the dispute ultimately led to the treaties signed by Torrijos and Carter.