PANAMA CITY, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Panama's economic development once stagnated due to U.S. intervention, said one expert.

Roberto Montanez, president of the Center for Asian Strategic Studies of Panama, told Xinhua that the United States has long viewed Panama and its strategic location as part of its sphere of influence. This enduring interest has been fueled by both strategic and imperial ambitions.

Noting that the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty allowed the United States to intervene in Panama's internal affairs, the expert said that "the United States was an arbiter of our affairs; it said who was going to be the president and what group had to be there. And so, we had a mentality that the economic and industrial sectors did not grow either."

During that time, American companies suppressed local labor unions, sometimes eliminating their leaders, Montanez said.

He also said that the United States' intentions in Panama mirrored its broader imperial expansion in Latin America. For example, the United States had already taken away large areas from Mexico, forced many Latin American states such as Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala into "banana republics," and controlled those countries through the United Fruit Company and some transnational corporations.

In Montanez's view, the Panama Canal was linked not only to economic gains for the United States but also to military and security matters.

The U.S. Southern Command, located in the Panama Canal Zone, was responsible for defending the entire Latin American region. In 1946, the U.S. government established the U.S. Army School of the Americas there.

The Panamanian people fought for decades and achieved milestones of success under the leadership of Omar Torrijos, who had a clear vision that Panamanians must take back the canal and national sovereignty.

The Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977 marked a turning point, setting the stage for the final withdrawal of U.S. military forces on Dec. 31, 1999. Panamanians finally recovered sovereignty over the canal.

Panama wants "to be the true owner of the canal now and to further capitalize on its strengths in areas such as communication, commerce and financial services," he said.

At the same time, the country also wants to strengthen exchanges with Global South countries to achieve development and revitalization, Montanez said. ■