[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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