ABSTRACT
The Panamanian people won a major victory in their struggle to recover sovereignty over the US-occupied Canal Zone. Since the outbreak of the anti-U.S. patriotic movement in January 1964, the heroic people of Panama have persisted in their struggle. The Latin American countries took the lead in the struggle to safeguard maritime rights. Peru, Ecuador and Chile signed the Santiago Declaration which announced the three countries' establishment of a 200-nauticalmile territorial sea limit and their determination to defend their sea rights. In the struggle against big power economic hegemonism, the Latin American countries together with the other Third World countries are striving for the establishment of a new international economic order. While accelerating the pace of integration on their continent, the Latin American countries have come to realize that the struggle to establish a new international economic order is not only the affair of Latin America, but the cause of the entire Third World.
