- Title: VENEZUELA: STUDENTS CALL FOR UNITED STATES TO RELINQUISH CONTROL OF PANAMA CANAL.
- Date: 11th January 1976
- Summary: 1. TV Demonstrators marching with banners and chanting slogans 0.21 2. CU & SV Marchers with banners (2 shots) 0.30 3. SV Leaflets distributed to people watching on footpath 0.35 4. SV Marchers pass watching policeman 0.42 5. CU Banners (2 shots) 0.48 6. TV & CU AND BACK VIEW March continues (4 shots) 1.12 Initials CL/1640 CL/1647 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 26th January 1976 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Reuters ID: LVAD4QM5CSWBU1303YNRRVOHDQKV
- Story Text: Thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Friday (9 January) to protest at continued United States control over the Panama Canal.
They were also marking the 12th anniversary of a bloody battle between United States troops and Panamanian rioters, in which 21 students and 4 troopers died.
The battle took place on 9 January, 1964 and its immediate cause was a dispute over the joint flying of the United States and Panamanian flags within the zone.
Since 1959, the Americans in the zone have been under orders not to fly their flag unless Panama's is next to it. American students raised the stars and stripes over their school and the battle resulted.
The United States has controlled the 550-square mile (1320 square kilometre) enclave since 1903. Under the historic treaty, the canal remains permanently under her control. But in recent years, there has been increasing pressure on the United States to relinquish its control to Panama.
Negotiators have been trying to hammer out a new agreement, and the question is widely regarded as the major irritant between the United States and its Latin American neighbours.
Talks are continuing but it is clear that the two sides are still far apart, even on general principles, particularly on whether the American military presence should be phased out.
Panamanian students joined the Caracas demonstration, which is the start of three-days of activity designed to push the canal question into the limelight again.
SYNOPSIS: Demonstrators marched through the streets of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Friday, once again protesting at continued United States control of the Panama Canal. They were also remembering a clash between U.S. troops and Panamanian rioters which claimed twenty five lives in nineteen sixty-four.
The immediate cause of the clash twelve years ago was a dispute over the joint flying of the United States and Panamanian flag within the canal zone. For the past seven years, United States residents living in the area have been under orders not to fly their flag unless Panama's is next to it.
In recent years there has been intense pressure on the United States to give up the Canal, which it has controlled since nineteen hundred and three. Negotiators are trying to work out a new agreement but it's a long, slow process. Meanwhile the canal is regarded as the major irritant between the United States and its Latin American neighbours.
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