|
|
Article: For Panama, the coming moment of controlling canal is electric.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- December 13, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. 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)
|
BALBOA, Panama _ Down the road from the Panama Canal, next to a vacant American high school, a giant digital clock rises in the tropical sky, displaying rapidly dwindling hours and seconds.
The clock, unlike many worldwide, is counting down not to the end of the year but to noon on Dec. 31. That's when the old order here is to give way to the new. It's the moment when, finally, the Yankees will go home.
The United States will at that instant formally hand over the waterway. The Panama Canal _ conceived by Spain, started by France, and completed by the United States _ will become Panama's canal.
A ceremony Tuesday will mark the final withdrawal ...