Posted on 11/07/2005 8:25:50 PM PST by NormsRevenge
PANAMA CITY, Panama - President Bush voiced his support on Monday for expanding the Panama Canal to allow bigger ships and more cargo to pass through the shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Bush said Panama must acknowledge that the 50-mile waterway "is to be used by everybody, that the canal is international, that there ought to be ... equal access."
Panama is studying plans for widening and deepening the canal that could cost nearly $10 billion. The project must be approved in a national referendum, amid concerns about the environmental impact and the heavy debt involved.
White House officials were careful before Bush's visit to remain neutral, saying the canal's future should be decided by Panamanian voters.
But, the president said here: "It's in our nation's interest that this canal be modernized."
It was Bush's last stop on a Latin American trip that also took him to Argentina and Brazil. He paused in Richmond, Va., on the way home to briefly campaign for Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore.
He returns to Washington to a troubled political landscape. White House aide Karl Rove is under a legal cloud in the CIA leak case and the president is at a low point in approval polls.
Bush briefly took charge of one of the canal's locks and pronounced it a "marvel." The United States opened the canal in 1914 and turned it over to Panama in 1999.
"Those who are responsible for the Panama Canal have done an excellent job, and this is beneficial to the world," Bush said after meeting with Panama President Martin Torrijos.
Michael Shifter, a Latin American expert at the Inter-American Dialogue research group in Washington, said Bush's stop in Panama was in part an attempt to show America's willingness to erase its image as a heavy-handed neighbor in the hemisphere.
"I think he's saying that the U.S. doesn't have to control everything — that the U.S. is able to sort of yield, and when it does, things can go well," Shifter said.
Bush, speaking in a government guest house near a presidential palace that overlooks Panama Bay, also said Panama and the U.S. were close to signing a free trade pact. But he acknowledged that the deal would likely run into resistance in Congress.
"The Democratic Party had free-trade members who are willing to make the right decisions based not on politics, but based on what's best for the interest of the country," Bush said. "That spirit has dissipated in recent votes and Panama can help reinvigorate the spirit.'
He glossed over an ongoing dispute about having a free-trade zone spanning the Western Hemisphere. At a summit in Argentina over the weekend, 34 nations failed to agree to restart talks on the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas. Bush stressed that 29 nations said "loud and clear" that it's important to advance a trade agenda.
Torrijos brought up one tricky subject — Panama's contention that the U.S. government, which built military bases in the Canal Zone to serve regional strategic military purposes, left behind unexploded ordnance.
"There will not always be agreement, such as in the unexploded ordnance issue," Torrijos said. "But there will always be a frankness, sincerity between us so that we can discuss as friends on the various viewpoints of our countries."
Bush's visit to Panama was in stark contrast to his father's visit here in 1992.
Former President George H.W. Bush was forced to flee to safety from tear gas fired at protesters at a rally in downtown Panama City where he was preparing to deliver a speech praising the revival of democracy in Panama. When a dark cloud of tear gas blew in, Secret Service agents led him away.
The incident followed a night of anti-American protests over the death and destruction that occurred during the December 1989 U.S. invasion to oust military strongman Manuel Noriega.
Besides touring the canal, Bush tossed a baseball with Panamanian baseball players and visited the Corozal American Cemetery to honor nearly 5,200 canal workers and U.S. service members buried there. He also he set up a fishing date with Torrijos.
At the canal, the president rolled up his sleeves to operate the Miraflores Locks. He turned a lever, sending an electronic signal to a motor that opens a value to let water flow into the lock.
It took about eight minutes for the chamber to fill and allow a ship from Malta to ascend to the next level of the canal. The ship, which paid $40,000 to pass through, was carrying 13,700 tons of wood and wood products from Chile to Mexico.
We built it, We paid for it, We ran it for 99 years, We wore it out, We gave it back as a piece of crap, let the rest of the world rebuild it, We dont need it.
Super tankers can go around the horn of Africa or thru the Suez canal or around South America for only a few $$$ more than they are charging to go thru the canal. Last figure I saw was about 20% more to bypass the Panama canal.
A: China, the owners of the canal should pay for it all. (Thanks a lot jimmah carter).
B: Does China have, or plan to have aircraft carriers and huge battleships that they want to send through the canal once they are ready to attack the USA?
C: If the US DOES spend one cent on this, I hope they covertly place a a few destruction charges in strategic places in case of B.
Engineering and management, yes. But most of the blood and sweat was given by Trinidadian, Barbadian, Jamaican etc laborers. Credit where credit is due.
I thought it would be easier to have a bigger, better canal in Nigaragua, and there's no reason why we can't proceed.
Good that he found time to toss a baseball. Rod Carew is from Panama. (He came closest of anyone in the American League to having a .400 batting average of anyone since Ted Williams...not quite as close as Tony Gwynn in the NL.)
If it weren't for Teddy Roosevelt's impatience with the government of Colombia, the canal would run through Colombian territory...the isthmus of Panama.
COSTCO has larger ships now to haul all that merchandise to America. This caper has Chinese overtones.
I think George Brett of Kansas City hit .390 in the late eighties. He needed 5 more hits to get to .400
As long as the Chicoms pay for it, I'm in favor.
Do you mean Costco or COSCO? Costco is a large national retail chain of discount warehouses founded in California; COSCO is the China Ocean Shipping Company.
Unresolved Questions- the Panama canal, good, bad, or a waiting disaster?--thread II
The idiot author or this piece left out the most important point…Bush’s reply. Bush replied that the United States complied with the treaty. The treaty said nothing about cleaning up unexploded ordinances. The U.S. has reminded Panama about this many times, but they continue to whine.
“At the canal, the president rolled up his sleeves to operate the Miraflores Locks.”
Wrong again, lady. Were you here at all during his visit? He ditched his coat and tie and rolled up his sleeves in his limo before arriving at Miraflores locks. President Torrijos did the same.
The author sounds like she was sitting in the U.S. when she wrote this piece.
"We built it, We paid for it, We ran it for 99 years, We wore it out, We gave it back as a piece of crap, let the rest of the world rebuild it, We dont need it."
Gads, where did you get all this misinformation?
China does not own the canal.
Wrong again. The canal belonged to the United States in "perpetuity."
You're right, he did better than Carew, but in 1980. (Carew's best was .388 in 1977. Tony Gwynn's best year was 1994, when he hit .394.).
He needed 5 more hits to get to .400.
Bush's fault.
Lets see now, the Chinese run the Canal so it figures that Bush would want to help out his friends, prolly even give them money to do the work.
Sure, it's Panama's canal now thanks to the igNobel Peace [Stick It To Bush] Prize winner Worst-Ex-Prez Jimmah Carter but look on the bright side: We get to pay for it after Panama defaults on US backed bonds.
Wonder how much this Presidential trip to SA will cost future taxpayers after all the promises given by Bush are cashed in?
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