UN General Assembly
1977

189. As the culmination of a lengthy process of negotiation, the United States and Panama have arrived at a basic arrangement on the question of the Panama Canal, with the purpose of eliminating the causes of conflict which have cast a shadow over relations between the United States and Panama and Latin America over the past 75 years. 190. The friendly agreement embodied in these treaties is due to the tenacious and constant campaign of the people of Panama, encouraged over the last years by the anti- colonialist attitude of General Omar Torrijos Herrera. Also, it is fair to recognize that it is also due to the democratic spirit and honest conscience of President Jimmy Carter, which finally rendered null and void the monstrous Hay-Bunau-Varilla Convention of 1903, that no Panamanian signed. That Convention, which was only voted later by people enchained by its arbitrary clauses, mortgaged forever the major natural resource of Panama.