Today, 26 years ago, on December 14, 1999 (November 7, 1999), Panama regained its sovereignty over the canal. On December 14, 1999, the Panama Canal sovereignty transfer ceremony was held at the Miravellore ship gate near Panama City, where Panama President Milea Moscoso and former U.S. President Carter signed an exchange on behalf of the two governments on the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the canal. By this date, the end of the U.S. colonial rule in South America, communicating the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, the "Golden Waterway" was actually called the "Panama Canal". The return of the canal marked the final victory of the Panama people in the long-running British struggle to recover the canal, and also marked the end of the U.S. colonial rule in