02-18-06,9:56am

“Thank God They’re Gone.” The phrase, repeated with each image in his slideshow presentation, had the power of a prayer for independence. The only missing part –as someone commented about the lecture– was a collective “Amen.”

“Thank God, they’re gone,” said Adolfo Quintero, a member of the Panama Association of Economists (Colegio de Economistas de Panama), as he demonstrated, with irrefutable hard data, the economic meaning that the recovery of sovereignty over the Canal has had for that small Central American nation. It was after December 31, 1999 that there ended the almost century-long US administration over the inter-ocean waterway that links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the Isthmus of Panama. During six years of management by Panama (2000 to 2005), for example, that nation received almost two times the amount paid by the United States to Panama during the first 66 years of the existence of that waterway (1913-1979). That was also equal to what was paid to Panama during the final 20 years of US domination of the Canal, between 1980 and 1999.

The amount obtained by Panama in 2003 was around 672 million dollars, seventeen times as much income as received in 1989. Also, according to another statistical analysis presented by economist Adolfo Quintero, what was generated by commercial activity during that year was 160 percent more than the largest amount received from payments for US military activity to Panama in 1992.

Employment also grew after the US Marines left Panama, increasing 62 percent above the greatest number of jobs during the military management of the so called “Canal Zone” by previous US governments.

“There was also a myth that the US labor was more qualified, and maybe it was in some ways, but they are not more capable than Panamanians, and that has much to do with human values,” said Professor Adolfo Quintero, who teaches economics at the State University of Panama.

To further illustrate his fully-documented analysis, Quintero demonstrated the degree of discrimination imposed by US managers, exemplified by the fact that before 1979 there was not a single Panamanian citizen serving within the management of the Canal, and only 0.9 percent of the Ship Pilots, 12.5 percent of the engine room officers, and 20 percent of the tugboat captains were Panamanian. Quintero also showed how statistics in those occupational categories have changed since 1999.

The economic impact of the Canal, that nowadays provides Panama with an average income of 266 million dollars per year, is an equivalent to twenty-two percent of the nation’s Gross Internal Product, something that fully justified the final conclusion of the presentation by the university professor: “There is a need to create a clear consciousness of the importance of controlling the main resources of our nations.”

A delegate from Puerto Rico, who took part in the discussion that followed Quintero’s paper, said that sadly all he could say was that “it’s too bad they haven’t left YET,” referring to the US colonial domination over Puerto Rico. And he added that “the saddest thing is that there are people there who still think: what would we do if they left?”