Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

One morning John met with Torrijos, who was very laid back and asked questions about John's time in Indonesia, Guatemala and Iran. Torrijos said he would fight to ensure Panama would not suffer the same as Guatemala, which was initiating land reforms to help the peasants. United Fruit Company, which was one of the most powerful forces in Central America and who owned most of the land that would be distributed manipulated the CIA into staging a coup. A puppet government run behind the scenes by United Fruit reverted things back to the status quo. Bechtel, the world's most powerful engineering firm and frequent partner to MAIN, was one of the backers of the coup.

Torrijos wants to build a bigger cana at sea level so bigger ships can pass easier. The Japanese aare interested in financing the project, which would...