Thursday, May 08, 2008
“Economic Hit Man” John Perkins Recounts U.S. Efforts to Block Nationalization of Panama Canal
Panamanian President Martin Torrijos was in Washington earlier this week to discuss a pending free trade agreement with the United States, where he drew praise from President Bush on winning national approval for the $5.2 billion expansion plan for the Panama Canal. But three decades ago the moves to nationalize the Panama Canal by President Torrijos’ father, General Omar Torrijos, met with enormous resistance in this country.
We speak to self-described “Economic Hit Man” John Perkins, who tried in vain to convince the elder Torrijos to acquiesce to the American corporate plan for the Panamanian economy. Perkins is the bestselling author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” and “The Secret History of the American Empire.”
The Panamanian President Martin Torrijos was in Washington earlier this week to discuss a pending free trade agreement with the United States. President Bush told reporters Tuesday that securing the agreement with Panama as well as Colombia and South Korea was a “priority of this government and should be a priority of the United States Congress.” He congratulated Torrijos on winning national approval for the $5.2 billion dollar expansion plan for the Panama canal and added “Panama is an important friend and ally of the United States.”
But three decades ago the moves to nationalize the Panama Canal by President Torrijos’ father, General Omar Torrijos, met with enormous resistance in this country. Here, Ronald Reagan denounces Torrijos on national television in 1976 as part of his campaign for the Republican nomination.
Ronald Reagan, speaking in 1976.
In 1977 under the Carter administration General Torrijos succeeded in negotiating the treaties that would eventually give his country full sovereignty over the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999. But General Torrijos did not live to see this transfer of power. He died on August 1, 1981 in a plane crash.
I’m now joined by a man who spent a great deal of his time in the late 1970s with General Torrijos. He was trying in vain to convince Torrijos to acquiesce to the American corporate plan for the Panamanian economy. He calls himself a former Economic Hit Man. John Perkins is the bestselling author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” and “The Secret History of the American Empire.”
“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” is dedicated to General Torrijos as well as the former President of Ecuador Jaime Roldos, both of whom died in plane crashes within three months of each other. Perkins writes: “Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire.”
John Perkins, from 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption.”
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