The Panamanian Flagpole incident of 1964 - America’s Sharpeville

By Mike Smith

18 February 2025

  

In my book I mentioned what really happened at Sharpeville, South Africa, 1960 and one can only fully understand what happened with a backdrop of the times and circumstances.

For instance Cato Minor a few days before that…where a black mob hacked nine policemen to death. At Sharpeville the police were not trained nor organised to deal with mass mobs and obviously the fear and panic on the day also played a role.

However very few people are aware that Sharpeville was not unique. Similar incidents happened regularly around the world and police studied them.

One notable incident was the so called “Flagpole incident” that happened in the American Zone in Panama in 1964…but first a bit of history of the Canal.

 

History of the Panama Canal and “The Zone”.

 

During the1800’s building canals were the in thing to do all throughout Canada, America, Egypt and the rest of the world. The French started building the Canal, around the time of the First Anglo Boer War, in 1881 but stopped in 1889 due to lack of investors and the high mortality rate. Of the 40,000 workers, 22,000 died of tropical diseases such as Yellow Fever, Malaria, Bilharzia, etc.

In 1894, with a bit of new investment, the French had another go at digging the canal, but they were in essence already looking for a buyer to take over the operations.

The US was interested and made some deals with the Colombians who owned the territory, but at the same time the US also supported Panamanian independence.

In 1903 the US send the navy to block off the two entrances on the Atlantic and Pacific sides and landed some soldiers. Shortly after, Panama declared independence and before the Colombians could send in a few conscripts, they lost the Panama Canal.

The Americans bought most of the French equipment, buildings workforce and shares, made deals with the new Panamanian government and eventually, also compensated the Colombians and kicked them to the curb.

The Canal was completed by Engineers Stevens and Goethals between 1904 and 1914.

The American “Canal Zone”

The Panama Canal Zone

The Americans were a lot more organised than the French and one of the first things they did was to, well…drain the swamp/s. Physically. Killed of the mosquito habitats, built clean houses and hospitals, water systems, etc. for the workers. Thousands of Black workers were imported from Caribbean Islands and would become known as “Afro-Panamanians”.

Alongside soldiers, government officials, Afro-Panamanians, local Panamanians and White Americans, a whole industry developed around the building of the Canal. Warehouses, workshops, cafeterias, shops, schools for the children, post-offices, and an own police force were built. The police force had 400 officers and 25 stations.

The Panama Canal Zone included the Canal (82 km long) and stretched about 10 km each side of it. It had the main cities of Colon on the Atlantic side and Balboa (its capital) on the Pacific side, right next to Panama City, the capital of Panama.

The Panama Canal Zone was a De Facto, if not De Jure colony of America and existed from 1903 to 1979 when it was incorporated back into Panama. It had its own, theatres, gas stations, banks, courts, police, and civil government.

The American flag flew everywhere and people who were born there were American citizens, like Senator John McCain who was born there in 1936.

However, the people who lived in the Panama Canal Zone (known as “Zonians”) had it good. Salaries were good, fringe benefits were good…they were far better off under American administration than their cousins in Panama.

It didn’t take long before the Zonians became snobistic, chauvinistic and started looking down upon Panamanians next door. Even inside The Zone there were differences…whites were known as the Gold Roll and coloureds were known as the Silver Roll, named after the way they were paid, ether with gold or silver.

There also existed a “Jim Crow”, segregated society…American Apartheid, with “Jim Crow” obviously a pejorative for Black people. American segregationist policies persisted in relation to housing, schooling, and post offices had separate entrances, just like in Apartheid South Africa. The Panama Canal Zone was also fenced off from Panama by what became known as “The Fence of Shame”.

Strife in Panama and The Zone

Throughout the 20th century the Panamanians felt entitled to the control of the Canal. Rioting, stoked by Communist Fidel Castro of Cuba, broke out on several occasions, most notably in 1958, 1959 and in 1962. The Cubans even attempted an invasion and coup in April of 1959.

In 1963, President Kennedy gave permission for the Panamanian flag to be flown alongside the American flag on all non-military government buildings, but after he was assassinated in November 1963, Governor Fleming, the US Governor of The Zone, limited the flying of both flags…the American flag would not be flown outside of Canal Zone schools, police stations, post offices or other civilian locations where it had been flown, but Panama's flag would also not be flown either.

The governor's order infuriated many Zonians, who interpreted it as a U.S. renunciation of sovereignty over the Canal Zone and in response Zonians began flying the U.S. flag anywhere they could.

The Balboa High School Flag incident

When a US flag was raised at the Balboa High School, the teachers took it down. This caused a walk-out by the students who went and raised another American flag. A lot of parents assisted the students.

On the afternoon of the 9th of January 1964, Governor Fleming left for Washington DC.

By this time news of the flag raising at Balboa High School reached the Instituto Nacional, Panama's top public high school. About 200 of their students decided to cross over into the zone and marched on Balboa HS.

They wanted to clime the Balboa High School’s flagpole and fly their Panamanian flag alongside that of the US Flag. At least that is what they alleged.

Waiting for them at the Balboa High School was a mixture of students, parents and the Canal Zone Police. The students from BHS surrounded the flagpole and sang the “Star-Spangled Banner”.

A scuffle broke out and the Zonians drove the Panamanians back. Be it accidental or on purpose, in the scuffle the Panamanian flag was torn.

Word spread quickly and in no time angry Panamanian crowds stormed into The Zone planting Panamanian flags everywhere. The Canal Zone Police teargassed them, and in response they started pelting the police with stones and bottles. Next moment the police opened fire with live ammunition.

The Panamanian crowds grew as nightfall came, and by 20:00. the Canal Zone Police was overwhelmed. Some 80 to 85 police officers faced a hostile crowd of at least 5,000, and estimated by some sources to be 30,000 or more, all along and across the border between Panama City and the Canal Zone. When the lieutenant governor came to survey the scene, the protestors stoned his car.

Meanwhile in Panama City American businesses were being burned down.

To support the police, the US army was called in and deployed around 20:35.

The violence lasted three days and the local hospital reported 324 injuries and recorded 18 deaths from the fighting. The final death toll was 28 people dead including four Americans.

The police claimed that they only shot over the heads or at the feet of the rioters, but later independent investigations showed that several Panamanians were directly shot or shot in the back by .38 bullets, standard police issue. Over 600 bullets were embedded in the Legislative Palace and over 400 bullets were embedded in the Tivoli Hotel.

Declassified papers later showed that the Canal Zone Police fired 1,850 .38 calibre pistol bullets and 600 shotgun shells in the fighting, while using 132 tear gas grenades.

In addition, declassified military documents showed that the U.S. Army fired 450 .30 calibre rifle rounds, five .45 calibre pistol bullets, 953 shells of birdshot and 7,193 grenades or projectiles containing tear gas. Also, the army claims to have used 340 pounds of bulk CN-1 chemical (weak tear gas) and 120 pounds of CS-1 chemical (strong tear gas).

Aftermath

President Roberto Chiari of Panama at the time broke diplomatic relations with the United States and declared that Panama would not re-establish diplomatic ties with the U.S. until it agreed to open negotiations on a new treaty.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed two treaties with Panama which dissolved the Canal Zone in 1979, and set a timetable for the closing of U.S. Armed Forces Bases and transferred full control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian Government at noon, December 31, 1999.

The 9th of January became known as “National Martyr’s Day” in Panama.

Modern era

The Panama Canal is vital for global shipping, offering unmatched efficiency for trade between Asia and the Americas’ eastern ports. Alternatives such as overland transport or navigating Cape Horn add significant distance, cost, and environmental impact, while Arctic routes are seasonal and geopolitically constrained. As the most reliable maritime link between the Atlantic and Pacific, the canal remains irreplaceable.

Trump’s recent comments on the Panama Canal’s excessive transit fees for American vessels and Chinese influence have thrust the canal to the forefront of US strategic discourse.

Chinese companies such as Landbridge Group and the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchins Holdings now operate two of the five ports at both ends of the canal.

China also forms secret pacts with foreign governments under their “Belt and Road Initiative” to gain control of these governments by building roads, railways, airports, power plants and other infrastructure.. Panama was one of them.

Earlier in February 2025, in a meeting between US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and Panama’s conservative leader Jose Raul Mulino, Rubio has demanded that Panama make "immediate changes" to what he called the "influence and control" of China over the Panama Canal. Panama also stood to loose about $4 Billion of US aid a year. A week later Panama caved and suspended the “Belt and Road Initiative” agreements with China and drastically scaled down cooperation with the Communist Party of China. China called the US interference “smearing and sabotage”.

The Americans invaded Panama in December of 1989 to depose Manuel Noriega, the former CIA agent gone rogue and who ruled Panama in the 1980’s as an unelected dictator amassing a fortune through drug dealing and money laundering.

  

Main thing is, thanks to president Trump, the Panama Canal remains free and neutral…at least for now.