9th January - Panama Canal

Discussion in 'Politics 2.0' started by Clive_ofthe_Kremlin, Jan 8, 2025.

  1. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    On 9th January 1964, a whole people bravely faced the machine guns of the 'good neighbour'.

    Panamanians had demanded sovereignty over the US-occupied 10 mile wide canal zone - which cut their country in half - for decades. As a sop, JFK agreed the previous year that the Panamanian national flag would be flown alongside the occupiers' flag inside the base. But then they forgot their promises and hoisted 'old glory' and nothing more.

    A group of students went down there with the Panama flag and demanded that it be flown. The Yankees reluctantly agreed that 6 of the students could enter and put their flag up.

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    However when they tried to do so, a large mob of canal zone residents surrounded them, singing their national anthem and roughing up the students. The Panama flag got ripped up and trampled on.

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    "...they started pushing us and trying to take our flag, while insulting us. One policeman raised his baton, which tore our flag. The captain tried to get us out and take us to where the other Panamanian students were. On the way through the crowd, many hands pulled and tore our flag."


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    The word spread like wildfire through the population and everyone turned out to reclaim their homeland from the invader. Enough. People broke through the barriers to plant the Panama flag inside the zone.

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    The US army and the canal zone occupiers opened fire, first with tear gas, then live rounds and even long range artillery. The first martyr to fall was 20 year old Ascanio Arosemena who was shot in the back while helping a wounded comrade away.

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    22 were killed and over 300 wounded, but the people didn't stop coming over the next 3 days. The Panamanian president, Roberto Chiari, broke off diplomatic relations with the United States and is known as 'the president of dignity' for that reason.

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    President Chiari declared that Panama would not resume diplomatic relations until negotiations for a new treaty were agreed upon.

    With the situation still escalating and Panamanians determined to evict the occupiers, the Yankees saw they were going to have their own Suez canal crisis and eventually agreed to leave in the year 2000.


    Now Trump says he will return to occupy that sovereign territory. We will see.





    Ascanio fell first
    They tore up our flag
    And how much blood they collected
    I cannot forget it
    And I carry you in my memory
    How they shot at the people
    And how many screams were heard
    For my country, life comes first

    PANAMA will always be SOVEREIGN!

    The lives that were lost
    And all the mourning they gave us
    But in the end they did not go away
    What values of my people
    I cannot forget them
     
  2. Panama, Greenland, Canada...
    It's just Lebensraum, no?
     
  3. AndrewH63

    AndrewH63 Reservist

    No. It’s about protecting globalisation, and in the case of Panama and Greenland the free movement of maritime trade.

    Just look how easy it has been for Ukraine to virtually stop Russian ships using the eastern end of the Black Sea. Despite having no naval vessels. Finland has captured a Russian ship in the Baltic, as it has exerted its superior naval presence now its part of NATO.
     

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