Efforts to Keep U.S. Troops on Post Fail

The United States and Panama announced that they had failed to negotiate an agreement to permit American troops to remain in Panama beyond the end of the century. The Panama Canal treaties require the departure of the soldiers by Dec. 31, 1999, when control over the waterway reverts to Panama. Since 1997, the two countries had sought to agree on establishing a multinational counternarcotics center in which military personnel from the U.S. and other hemispheric countries would take part. The announcement appears to mean that no U.S. troops will be based in Panama for virtually the first time since it achieved independence from Colombia in 1903. Some Panamanians reacted with glee to the announcement.