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As far as the "payback": The US did collect the fees from canal transits, for 100 years -- and it was a very tidy sum.
My opinion is that you're missing the bigger picture: As one of those articles pointed out, the US needs a stable, safe Panama as much as Panama needs the US. If the US had not returned the canal, Panama would very likely now be a left-leaning trouble spot (like Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, et. al.). As it is, Panama is one of the strongest US allies in Latin America -- and that's without receiving $5 billion in annual aid, as is the case with Colombia. Yes, I suppose the US could have bombed the country into submission and sent 100,000 troops to quell the restless natives -- but how long can the US keep doing that, and in how many different parts of the world?
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