Panama Canal fence

The Panama Canal fence was not a name used by the citizens of the Canal Zone. It was a low fence, for the majority of its length, part of it chain link. It sat atop a retaining wall alongside a short stretch of a busy highway, the Fourth of July Avenue. The fence was located across the street from the border of the Republic of Panama, within the Canal Zone. It was similar to the fences one might see along major highways in the United State and elsewhere in the world, It was constructed concurrent with the widening of the adjacent roadway which started in 1960 with the construction of the Thatcher Ferry Bridge. The fence was designed to prevent pedestrians from falling off the high retaining wall into the busy street. Parts of the fence still exist today or have been replaced with newer fence. The Canal Zone extended beyond the fence, across Fourth of July Avenue and across the sidewalk on the Panama side, all the way up to the edge of the buildings there. This invisible line between the sidewalk and the buildings was the actual border between the Canal Zone and Panama. The United States maintained the avenue and the sidewalks on both sides as they were inside the Zone.

Under a treaty of 1904 which was ratified by the Panamanian National Legislature, the United States had undertaken to build and maintain the canal with permanent sovereignty rights over it. In exchange, the Republic of Panama received a 10 million dollar payment and additional yearly payments which began with the opening of the canal. In addition to the 10 million dollar treaty purchase of the land rights from Panama, the United States paid to purchase the title to all the lands in the Canal Zone from the existing property owners including 40 million dollars paid to the French Canal Company for their properties and at least $4,728,889 paid to other private property owners. It was the most expensive land purchase and the highest price ever paid for land by the U.S. Government in its entire history. Years later an additional 25 million dollars was paid to Columbia as well.

Ten years after construction was complete, this arrangement was becoming unacceptable to the Panamanians and they insisted that the United States give to Panama all the Canal Zone property they had purchased, ownership and control of the canal, ports, water supply, etcetera, and to submit the Canal Zone to Panamanian governance. By 1963, President Eisenhower had compromised by giving land to Panama, raising the annual tolls paid to Panama up to more that 2 million dollars annually, and with a plan to allow the flag of Panama to be flown beside the Stars and Stripes outside public buildings. This measure had not been fully enacted, when President Kennedy was assassinated. In Panama, there were demonstrations by Panamanian, often involving the desecration of United States flags.

On January 9, 1964, after a failed attempt to desecrate the United States flag at a Canal Zone high school, angry crowds of Panamanians formed along Fourth of July Avenue inside the Canal Zone. At several points demonstrators planted Panamanian flags and began to tear down what they began to call the "Fence of shame" creating gaps downhill from the United States District Court, Gorgas Hospital, many residences and government offices, and at several other spots along the fence near the post office and the elementary school. The rioters robbed, vandalized and set fire to cars, buildings and other property in the Canal Zone, as well as firing guns into the buildings and at people inside the Zone. More that 400 bullets were removed from the Tivoli Hotel on the Canal Zone side of the border. It is unknown how many bullets were removed from the elementary school. Canal Zone police responded with tear gas and several of the rioters were shot.

The opinion of most Panamanians (and most Latin Americans generally) about the fence in question was expressed a few days later by Colombia's ambassador to the Organization of American States: "In Panama there exists today another Berlin Wall." The opinion of most Americans in the Canal Zone is that there was no physical barrier between the Canal Zone and Panama, and one would simply walk, drive or otherwise move between the two at will with no impediment, checkpoints, gates or similar encumbrances. They cite the photographic evidence that exists as proof positive of their claims, including the cover of Life Magazine from 1964. To this date, no one has been able to produce a photograph of a border gate between Panama and Canal Zone, nor a fence along the 45 mile borderlines, in spite of numerous media reports with implications or claims of such structures.

External links

• The beginning of the end of the Panama Canal Zone
• Troubled passageway: following conflict through the Panama Canal