[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 77 Introduced in House (IH)]
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 77
Notifying the Government of Panama of the nullity of the Carter-
Torrijos treaties and recognizing the validity of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla
Treaty with respect to control of the Panama Canal Zone.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 9, 1999
Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage introduced the following joint resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
JOINT RESOLUTION
Notifying the Government of Panama of the nullity of the Carter-
Torrijos treaties and recognizing the validity of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla
Treaty with respect to control of the Panama Canal Zone.
Whereas the United States Canal in Panama, linking the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans, is one of the most strategically important naval choke points in
the world, essential to our national defense and vital to our economic
well-being;
Whereas occupation, damage, or destruction of this crucial waterway by a hostile
power--whether an unfriendly Panamanian Government, terrorist
organization, or other foreign government--could be calamitous to the
United States in time of war and disastrous to our economy even in time
of peace;
Whereas the Republic of Panama does not have an army, navy, air force, or other
military or police capability adequate for the defense of such a
strategic asset;
Whereas the communist government of the People's Republic of China has been
pursuing an aggressive expansionist agenda in Panama, the Caribbean, and
Latin America, while, at the same time carrying out a concerted and
much-publicized campaign of bribery and espionage reaching to the
highest offices of the United States;
Whereas Hutchison Whampoa, a front company for the People's Liberation Army of
China, utilizing corrupt practices, has acquired leases giving it
control of the ports of Cristobal and Balboa at the Atlantic and Pacific
ends of the Panama Canal, positioning the People's Republic of China for
de facto control of the Canal;
Whereas the People's Republic of China, through its agent, Hutchison Whampoa, is
also in the process of taking over the Rodman Naval Station and other
military facilities being abandoned by the United States, and has the
exclusive authority to hire the pilots who control all traffic through
the Canal;
Whereas the People's Republic of China, a totalitarian regime, refers to the
United States in its military literature and official Communist Party
statements as its ``main enemy'' and has aligned itself with other
communist regimes and terrorist states avowedly hostile to the United
States;
Whereas China expert Dr. Michael Pillsbury of the National Defense University
testified to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in September
1997 that the Chinese military officials have written extensively of
their nation's intention ``to defeat the United States'';
Whereas in spite of these manifest dangers, the Government of the United States
is pursuing a policy of transferring possession, ownership, and control
of the Panama Canal and Canal Zone, which includes the United States
military bases, to the Government of Panama, in accordance with the 1977
Carter-Torrijos treaties, which were never legally ratified by either
the United States or Panama;
Whereas in their respective instruments of ratification, the United States and
Panama did not agree to the same text of the treaties, and, in fact,
each party stipulated to conditions that are in fundamental conflict
with, and mutually exclusive of, the demands of the other;
Whereas one of the most basic and universally accepted principles of
international law concerning treaties holds that the parties must agree
to the same written text, or there is no ``meeting of the minds'' and,
thus no treaty;
Whereas Article 20.2 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states
unequivocally that ``a reservation requires acceptance by all the
parties''; and whereas the ``Restatement of the United States Foreign
Relations Law'' declares unambiguously that ``If the other state has
made a reservation . . . the Senate . . . will take it fully into
account in acting on the treaty,'' and, moreover, that ``Senate consent
to the acceptance of the reservation is required'';
Whereas ratification of the Carter-Torrijos treaties by the United States Senate
was contingent upon the DeConcini Reservation in the United States
version guaranteeing the United States the right to use military force,
with or without Panama's consent, to keep the Canal open;
Whereas the United States Senate was not informed that the President of the
United States had secretly agreed with the regime of Omar Torrijos in
Panama not to include the essential DeConcini Reservation in Panama's
text version; and, moreover, that the President of the United States
added further to this illegal and unconstitutional action by secretly
accepting Panama's counter-reservation, which explicitly repudiates the
DeConcini Reservation and subjects United States right of military
intervention to ``principles of mutual respect and cooperation'';
Whereas these discrepancies in the treaty texts involve the most substantive and
fundamental contradictions imaginable affecting matters of the most
serious import to both the United States and Panama, and, thus, render
the ratifications by both parties invalid, null, and void;
Whereas additional serious violations of legal norms and the Constitutions of
both the United States and Panama also render the Carter-Torrijos
treaties of transfer and neutrality null and void, and, therefore, of no
legal standing;
Whereas therefore, the original Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 between the
United States and Panama--under which the United States legally
purchased the Canal Zone territory from Colombia, Panama, and private
landowners, and then, at great cost, built the Panama Canal, which has
proved to be an enormous boon to the whole world--remains legally in
force;
Whereas the 1903 Treaty between the United States and Panama grants the United
States full sovereign rights over the Panama Canal and Canal Zone ``in
perpetuity'', and the United States Supreme Court has ruled (1907) that
the Canal Zone is indeed United States territory;
Whereas even the terms of the invalid Carter-Torrijos Neutrality Treaty have
been violated, rendering that treaty doubly void, in that Article V of
the Neutrality Treaty specifies use of defense sites by Panama only, but
Panama is leasing defense sites to a partner of the merchant marine arm
of China's People's Liberation Army (Hutchison Whampoa);
Whereas the President of the United States, in defiance of both law and the
national security and economic interests of the United States, has
proceeded, and is proceeding, with the complete transfer of this vital,
sovereign territory of the United States to Panama;
Whereas this transfer process is proceeding toward imminent completion on
December 31, 1999; and
Whereas treaties are legislative acts and, as officially noted in Jefferson's
Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives, ``Treaties being
declared equally with the laws of the United States, to be the supreme
law of the land, it is understood that an act of the legislature alone
can declare them infringed and rescinded'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That notice is given to the
Government of Panama of the decree of nullity of the 1977 Carter-
Torrijos treaties, and, further, that the United States recognizes the
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 has never been voided and remains
legally binding.
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