The World - News from April 26, 1987

Panama President Eric A. Delvalle accused the United States of failing to fulfill all of its obligations under the 1977 Panama Canal treaties, under which the United States will hand over control of the canal to Panama by the year 2000. Delvalle, speaking at a business executives’ convention in Panama City, did not detail all of the treaty obligations that the United States has allegedly failed to live up to. But he stressed that modernization of the canal, so that it reverts to Panama in top-notch condition on Dec. 31, 1999, was one of them. The top priority, he added, is the widening of the Gaillard Cut, the canal’s narrowest section.