Panama regains control of the canal. On September 7, 1977, the United States signed a treaty with Panama, agreeing to transfer control of the canal to the country starting in 2000. In 1903, the US desire to build a canal in the Isthmus of Panama, then controlled by Colombia, led then-President Theodore Roosevelt to support the Panamanian revolt against Colombian rule. Panama gained independence and soon after signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, granting the United States the right to build, protect, and indefinitely administer the canal that would be opened in the center of the Republic of Panama. In 1914, the 40-mile-long canal opened, providing a strategic link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Panama subsequently pushed to revoke the treaty, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos signed a treaty providing for a handover in 2000. On December 15, 1999, the handover took place without incident.
