Background:
With US backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and promptly
signed a treaty with the US allowing for the construction of a canal
and US sovereignty over a strip of land on either side of the
structure (the Panama Canal Zone). The Panama Canal was built by the
US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. On 7 September
1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal
from the US to Panama by the end of 1999. Certain portions of the
Zone and increasing responsibility over the Canal were turned over
in the intervening years. With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was
deposed in 1989. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the
Canal, and remaining US military bases were turned over to Panama by
or on 31 December 1999.