Emperors in the Jungle:
The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama
by John Lindsay-Poland
published by Duke University Press
$18.95 (paper) 265 pages
Emperors in the Jungle is an exposé of key episodes in the United States'
military involvement in Panama. Investigative journalism at its best, it
reveals how U.S. ideas about taming tropical jungles and people, combined
with commercial and defense objectives, shaped more than a century of
intervention and environmental engineering in a small, strategically-located
nation.
Whether uncovering the U.S. Army's decades-long program of chemical
weapons tests in Panama or recounting the U.S. invasion in December, 1989,
which was in fact the U.S. military's twentieth intervention in Panama since
1856, John Lindsay-Poland vividly portrays the extent and costs of U.S.
involvement. Lindsay-Poland discloses the hidden history of U.S.-Panama
relations, including the human and environmental toll of the massive canal
building project (1904-14). He describes secret chemical weapons tests of
toxins including nerve agent and Agent Orange as well as plans developed in
the 1960s to use nuclear blasts to create a second canal in Panama. He
chronicles sustained efforts by Panamanians and international environmental
groups to hold the United States responsible for the disposal of the tens of
thousands of explosives it left undetonated on the land it turned over to
Panama in 1999.
Lindsay-Poland reports on the myriad issues that surrounded Panama's
takeover of the canal in accordance with the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty, and
he assesses the future prospects for the Panamanian people, land, and canal
area. Bringing to light historical legacies unknown to most U.S. citizens or
even to many Panamanians, Emperors of the Jungle is a major contribution
toward a new, more open relationship between Panama and the United States.
John Lindsay-Poland is Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Task
Force on Latin America and the Caribbean. He is the coauthor of Inside
Panama: The Essential Guide to its Politics, Economy, Society, and
Environment.
— Guillermo Castro, Panamanian sociologist
Back to Peace Talk Index,
Fall, 2003