Excellent point about Colombia. However, the first-Colombian-province-then-country of Panama certainly had sovereignty over that land before the US sent troops in to start the canal building/force independence for Panama.
The 'need' to return, resolve or otherwise change the state of affairs was mainly an issue that Panama (and other Latin American countries supporting them) was getting increasingly contentious and angry about it - for some odd reason they didn't appreciate having US military bases physically splitting their country in half, I guess. Anyway, it had been a big enough problem that the US was having to veto UN resolutions against them, fatal incidents of mob violence between US and Panamanian citizens had occurred, and the three presidents prior to Carter had unsuccessfully been seeking solutions (including failed attempts to negotiate similar treaties) to the issue for over a decade.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2004-06-11 06:27 am (UTC)The 'need' to return, resolve or otherwise change the state of affairs was mainly an issue that Panama (and other Latin American countries supporting them) was getting increasingly contentious and angry about it - for some odd reason they didn't appreciate having US military bases physically splitting their country in half, I guess. Anyway, it had been a big enough problem that the US was having to veto UN resolutions against them, fatal incidents of mob violence between US and Panamanian citizens had occurred, and the three presidents prior to Carter had unsuccessfully been seeking solutions (including failed attempts to negotiate similar treaties) to the issue for over a decade.