Panama: owning the canal

Abstract

It is rare that Americans wonder about what happened to the Panama Canal after the United States turned it over to Panama in 1999. Since 2000, the Panamanians have been able to transform the canal into a profitable enterprise and successfully revert a good deal of Canal Zone infrastructure to public use through a combination of positive political decision-making, fiscally beneficial economic policies, and constructive management. The United States created the nation of Panama, built and managed the canal, and finally begrudgingly handed over sovereignty. To this extent, Panama's success is our success. Yet there has been surprising little real analysis of the changes in Panama that have resulted from a decade of ownership of the canal and the land surrounding it. It is time to appraise the results so far.