DANGER IN THE CANAL ZONE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000200350001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 2, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 22, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

B LTIMOf ; NE?iS AMERICAN
2 2 DEC 1971
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RSTATA1
HENRY J. TAYLOR
anger iii the banal Zone
Color-blind Senate Foreign Relations Commit- a faction-ridden political jungle. Its demagogueq
tee Chairman J. William Fulbright, with an assist of all stripes (including Torrijo) employ the canal
from. Sen. Edward Al. Kennedy, is powerfully to pressure-cook the population, realizing full well
sponsoring behind_the scenes another giveaway to that more than half of Panama's true need is for
the glee of the Reds. This plum involves the great betterment in agriculture and animal husbandry:
Panama Canal. and the development of light industry.
Led by able Rep. Daniel J. Flood, D-Pa., more It's easier for the Panamanian demagogues t6
than 100 congressmen publicly protest any major roar at the United States - the country's. only
concessions to shaky dictator Gen. Omar Torrijo's feeding hand.
Republic of Panama regarding the U.S. Canal These'senators should know, too, that Guas
Zone. Fortunately, these protesters have some temala. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic.
force. A new treaty with Torrijo requires approval Haiti. Honduras and Colombia, which- boni.'t ."
only by the Senate, not by the House. But changes Panama, are likewise chaotic.
in the U.S. Canal Zone's sovereignty. would require COLOMBIA PRESIDENT Misael Pastrarz
House approval because the House votes the funds Borrero, enforcing martial law, has told our CIA
for the canal's operations. that there are Castro-backed infiltrators by the
Behind closed doors, and with our public unin- thousand in Colombia's universities, communica=
formed, Senators Fulbright and Kennedy are urg- Lions media, transportation facilities and trade
ing that Panama get greater income from our unions. The police actually discovered clandestine
canal, control of our zone's collateral land and weapons being manufactured in Colombia's
water areas, and that U.S. businesses in our zone Ministy of Public Works in Bogota.
be replaced bylPanannanian enterprises. Sitting Guatemala President Carlos Arana Orio told
like presiding Buddhas, both confidently say they the CIA: "We have been in a state of seige fot
can handle its Senate passage, nearly five years, with no end in sight."
OL'li TAl'PA- PAYERS have invested more than 55 The Dominican Republic, where (wily our land-
billion in the Canal Zone and invested this e hanS5 in-, of 11.000 American troops stopped a Red'
package is bad enough, but it is only a part of takeover a few years ago, nervously remains all
what should be called a Red blackmail and ex- armed camp.
I DINED IN NEW PORK with Nicaragua
posed as such.
Chief of President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Ale told me:
Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. Zum- "Castro has made 22 armed attempts to invade
wait Jr. could review the great canal's global Nicaragua." -
strategic importance with his eyes shut. So could Except for Nicaragua, our 10-mile-(vide Canal
the general staffs of the world. Moreover, in Latin- Zone is the only zone of stability in the region. All
American terms, about 80 per cent of Peru's and
for-
Chile's imports and exports see this situation with the for-
ports pass through it, with bearance of a fox in a a henhouse,
equivalent dependency on the canal among the It is tragically ironic that we should
entire Pacific side of the continent. iv.
Certainly, the Fulbri ht-Kennedy abroad $148 billion leeconomic aid, support NATO
g pair should in Europe 3,500 miles away and have fought in.
know, for everybody knows, that Panama Vietnam 9,000 miles away to contain Communist
(population 1.4 million) is chaotic - and is a expansionism, while we allow ourselves to be-
lightning rod for Red assaults. Did they not find talked out of the secure Canal Zone and Panama-
anything instructive in the January, 1964, riots Canal in our own back yard,
when Red wreckers contrived a devastating, full- The real question is not the surrender of U.S.,
scale attack against gur Canal Zone and brutally sovereignty in the U.S. control of the great canal-
killed four U.S. soldiers? versus Panamanian control. It is U.S. control
The attack was led by Cuba-trained Panama- which the facts have been withheld will support
nian Communist Thelma King who precipitated versus Communist control.
the iron-fisted demands which these senators are We can only hope that an alarmed public front
sponsoring today. Rep. Flood's House group and blow the Fulbright-
THEY 11UST KNOW ALSO that Panama is still Kennedy Senate putsch right out of the water.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R000200350001-4
 TILE MEW YOT Tfl S BOOK l 'VIEW MAGAZINE
Approved For Release 2001/03/6Y U?-RDP80-
a. `y
DA A
Revolu- . o
priest
The Complete Writings and
Messages of Camilo Torres.
Edited and with an introduction by
John Gerassi.
460 pp. New York:
Random House. $10.
STATINTL
Agitator, Or'g'anizer, guerrila, as well as cleric
By MAUI CE ZEITLI1I .., i..__
meat agents, falsely attacked by his
Fidel Castro remarked that "the
Communists in Latin America have
become theologians and the theolo-
gians Communists." His aphorism has
enough truth in it to trouble the rul-
VAng classes and confound the State
Department and C.I.A. In the innards
of the Roman Catholic Church, an
institution which above all has been
the rampart of the existing order in
Latin America, there has appeared a
movement of new priests preaching
the gospel of socialist revolution in
the language of Christianity. None is
more exemplary of that movement
than Camilo Torres, the Colombian
priest who was killed in the moun-
tains of Bucaramanga by Government
troops, on Feb. 15, 1966, four months
after joining the guerrillas of the
Army of National Liberation.
Camilo was a rare man: priest,
professor, agitator and organizer and,
for an all too brief moment in his We,
guerrilla fighter. In the space of not
more than three years of practical
political activity, drawn as he was
into the vortex of the social struggle
from his position as chaplain and
professor of sociology at the National
University of Bogota, he forged an
alliance of new political forces in
Colombia that promised to develop
an overwhelming mass following. It
was a movement calling for profound
changes, which was endowed with
the charisma of Catholicism and of
Camilo's own extraordinary personal
qualities. It took religious dogma, in
the most Catholic of countries, and
made it a philosophical force that
undermined and subverted the status
quo rather than upholding it, that
legitimized, nay compelled, revolu-
tionary action.
He was accused of being a Com-
munist, but few doubted the authen-
ticity of his denial although he stated
that he was "prepared to fight to-
gether with the Communists for com-
mon goals: against the oligarchy and
United States domination; for the
Maurice Zeitlin is the author of
"Revolutionary Politics in the Cuban
Working Class."
own church hierarchy for abandoning
Catholic doctrines, vilified by the
press and living in fear of assassina-
tion, he continued to act publicly in
accordance with his conscience and
his concept of the Christian mission.
Torn between his vows as a priest
and his political commitments, and
ordered to abandon either his cause
or the priesthood, he chose reduction
to lay status. He continued, however,
to regard himself as a priest, and
was known, wherever he went, as
"Padre Camilo."
Camilo's decision "to continue the
struggle, arms in hand, until power
has been won by the people," came
when he felt he could not be effect-
ive in public political life, and his
death at the hands of Government
agents if he remained above ground
seemed certain. His decision followed
also from his conception of the revo-
lution as a historical necessity, a
Christian imperative and an unavoid-
able personal commitment. "The rev-
olution," he told a rally of union
leaders and workers a few months
before joining the guerrillas, "de-
mands that we act, whatever the ulti-
mate consequences. The revolution-
ary struggle is not just any struggle-
it is not a commitment of a few hours
or a few pesos. It is a struggle to
him to join the armed struggle Lo
break that embrace. In the course
of his political activity, he came to
realize that his people's misery was
rooted in Colombia's peculiarly retro-
grade form of dependent capitalism.
Unfortunately this realization did
not come early enough to inform his
scholarly work, and it is scarcely re-
flected in his sociological articles,
though the ideas are there in his pub-
lished agitational "messages" and his
political program. In general, while
Camilo did important empirical re-
search on the conditions'of the work-
ers and peasants and was occasion-
ally brilliant and often insightful, his
articles were limited by the same lib-.
oral ideological framework imposed
on sociological theory in the United
States.
Had he the chance .to continue
his work as a scholar-rather than
engaging in a struggle against a rul-
ing class that even the "U. S. Army
Area Handbook on Colombia" recoa-.
nizes is ready to "unleash bitter and
indeed brutal behavior" against "a
genuine threat to class interest"-
Camilo would probably have gone
on to analyze the generic source of
Colombia's retarded development in'
her quasi-colonial status. While Cam-
Ito dubbed his country "the depend-
ent republic of Colombia," his own:
essays barely touch upon the inter-,
connection between the impoverish-
ment and suffering of his people and
Colombia's subordinate relationship
to the advanced capitalist countries.
which it is necessary to commit one's Colombia is dependent on the Unit-'
life." (Translation by this reviewer.) ed States for the bulk of her export
Camilo's conclusion that a socialist market (primarily coffee and petro-
revolution was necessary "'so that the 1--urn.) and her imports, mainly dura-
hungry may be fed, the thirsty given ble consumer, semiinanufactured and
drink, and the naked clothed-and capital goods. The over 300 United
to bring about the well-being of the States corporations operating in Co-
majority of our people" reflected his lombia, whose known investments
deepening understanding of the inti- amount, to some $700-million, togeth-
mate embrace between the Colom- er with the banks and lending agen-
?bian state, the ruling class and Unit- cies on which Colombia is financial-'
ed States corporations. His credo that ly dependent, share a mutual interest
"the revolutionary struggle is a with the Colombian ruling class in
priestly and Christian struggle," was maintaining the existing order. Be-'
both a moral and analytical summa- tween 1962 and 1966, under United
winning of p~roveu FF6 ani
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