UN General Assembly
1986

The Republic of Panama wishes to state to this Assembly that retrograde sectors wielding great economic power and considerable influence have conspired to weave a whole tissue of lies and slander against the image of the Governments of the countries that form the Contadora Group and have stopped at nothing in their perfidious attempt to undermine the process towards a peaceful settlement and frustrate our people's aspirations to peace. In this important forum, I denounce those same forces for launching a cruel campaign against my country because they are seeking to deny us the right to manage, operate and defend the Panama Canal from the date agreed in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties and to maintain the Panama Canal within the strictest neutrality, offering efficient service to all the nations of the world. Allow me now to refer to a serious question which concerns all the Governments that are represented here and that are concerned with safeguarding the principles of the Charter of the Organization and preserving the full force of tUe international legal order.