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Article: Panama Canal: Changing of the Guard.
- Article from:
- The World and I
- Article date:
- October 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sometime in mid-December, in a ceremony that probably will occur on the back terrace of the elegant and imposing Panama Canal Commission building in Balboa Heights, the American flag will come down.
If past ceremonies are a guide, a white symbolic key will be passed and, for the first time, all of Panama's territory, including the 600- plus square miles of the Panama Canal Zone, will be held by Panamanians.
The ceremony was to have been held December 31, but foreign dignitaries were begging off, saying they had to be in their own countries for the millennium celebrations.
U.S. and Panamanian government offices alike display makeshift wall ...