Misinformation about Panama Canal
On a recent on-site report for NBC News from The Republic of Panama, correspondent Andrea Mitchell stated that the Panama Canal Treaty, signed by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos in 1978, had been “overwhelmingly supported” in the U.S.
Well, not exactly.
The issue of Panamanian sovereignty over the canal was then as much of a political hot potato as it is today. Significantly, although hardly recalled today, a little-known senator from Montana played the key role in the treaty’s passage.
Paul Hatfield, an attorney from Great Falls, had been appointed by Gov. Tom Judge to fill out the term of Democrat Sen. Lee Metcalf, who died in office in the early days of 1978. In an act of uncommon political courage, Sen. Hatfield cast the deciding vote, realizing that his support of the treaty would doom his chance of being elected to a full term a year later.
Why has the canal become a hot button issue again today? Not surprisingly, the public is being misled by the chronic misinformation and outright lies spewed by President Donald Trump in his efforts to bully the Panamanians into unwarrented concessions.
He constantly states that 38,000 U.S. workers perished while constructing the 51-mile-long project connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. His assertion is a gross exaggeration, off by over 37,000 deaths. In the extensive history of Trump lies, this one really takes the cake.
Marixa Lasso, a Panamanian historian and author of the book “Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal,” states that according to government records she has researched, only 350 Americans perished. Lasso and other scholars who have studied the issue place the total death count for the decade long project at about 5,000, a fraction of what Trump falsely contends. Some 4,000 English speaking laborers from the West Indies accounted for most of the fatalities.
Trump’s claim that the canal is being controlled by China is equally absurd. The issue of Chinese in history in Panama, however, is another matter.
Thousands of construction workers from China began arriving in the 1850s to work on the trans-isthmus railway. Today, between 5% and 10% of the population of the country claims Chinese ancestry, making it the largest Chinese enclave in Central America. Panama City boasts two Chinatowns, excellent private schools, and a vibrant commercial sector.
What would Trump propose for these Chino Panameños? Internment camps, perhaps?
Kalispell resident Mark Holston had his first journalist work published in The Panama American, a daily newspaper. He taught English as a second language for a class of senior Panamanian military officers and has over the years reported on a range of Panamanian issues for a variety of publications.