The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HOW NOTORIOUS DICTATOR WILL BE REMEMBERED
U.S. troops brought ex-ally to face drugrelated charges.
Manuel Antonio Noriega, the brash former dictator of Panama and sometime ally of the United States whose ties to drug trafficking led to his ouster in 1989 in what at the time was the largest U.S. military action since the Vietnam War, has died. He was 83.
President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama announced Noriega’s death on Twitter early Tuesday.
“The death of Manuel A. Noriega closes a chapter in our history; his daughters and his relatives deserve to bury him in peace,” Varela wrote.
Noriega died around 11 p.m. Monday at Santo Tomás Hospital in Panama City, a hospital employee confirmed. The official cause of death was not immediately available.
Noriega had been in intensive care since March 7 after complications developed from surgery to remove what his lawyer described as a benign brain tumor. He had been granted house arrest in January to prepare for the procedure.
His medical problems came on the heels of a legal odyssey that had begun with the invasion and led to prison terms in the United States, France and finally Panama.
After returning to Panama on Dec. 11, 2011, he began serving sentences for murder, embezzlement and corruption in connection with his rule during the 1980s.
It was an inglorious homecoming for a man who had been known for brandishing a machete while making defiant nationalist speeches and living a lavish, libertine life off drug-trade riches, complete with luxurious mansions, cocaine-fueled parties and voluminous collections of antique guns.
Noriega had a decadeslong, head-spinning relationship with the United States, shifting from cooperative ally and informant for American drug and intelligence agencies to shady adversary, selling secrets to political enemies of the United States in the Western Hemisphere and tipping off drug cartels. Whose side he was on was often hard to tell.
It was an awkward embrace that befitted the history of American and Panamanian relations since the United States built the Panama Canal early in the 20th century. The United States continued to operate the canal for eight decades before turning it over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.
Noriega’s two-facedness was known to the U.S. authorities. But they saw him as useful in their efforts to maintain influence in Panama at a time of political instability and leftist uprisings in Central America.
He grew more belligerent, however, and by 1989 U.S. patience had run out. Lawmakers in Washington, some of them worried about the coming turnover of the canal to Panama, began asking more questions about his ties to drug traffickers.
Noriega turned more violent toward political opponents, setting his feared antiriot units on demonstrators.
The U.S. Senate in 1986 overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Panama to remove Noriega from the Panamanian Defense Forces pending an investigation of charges of corruption, election fraud, murder and drug trafficking. The next year, after Congress cut off military and economic aid, Panama defaulted on its foreign debt payments.
In 1988, Noriega was indicted on federal narcotics-trafficking and money-laundering charges. He was accused of turning Panama into a shipping platform for South American cocaine destined for the United States, and allowing drug proceeds to be hidden in Panamanian banks.
On Dec. 16, 1989, Panamanian troops shot and killed an unarmed American soldier in Panama City, wounded another and arrested and beat a third soldier.
“That was enough,” President George H.W. Bush said in announcing the invasion, which included more than 27,000 troops.
Panamanian forces were quickly overwhelmed as Noriega escaped into hiding, surfacing days later on Dec. 24 at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. Twenty-three American service members were killed and more than 300 wounded in the invasion; casualties among Panamanians have been disputed.
U.S. troops descended on the embassy, and a standoff followed. He surrendered on Jan. 3, 1990, and was flown to jail in Florida, leaving behind a new president sworn in on a U.S. military base and a new era for Panama.
Noriega came to power after his mentor, the dictator Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera, died in a plane crash in 1981. Ascending to the rank of general in 1983, he effectively became the country’s strongman, even though a civilian was president.
Embracing his power, Noriega rigged civilian elections to favor his handpicked candidates. He strengthened ties to drug traffickers. But he also sought close bonds with the United States.
After he was stripped of his rank by Panama’s new civilian government in 1990 and taken to Florida to face charges. Noriega was convicted in April 1992 and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In July 1999, France tried him in absentia on money-laundering charges, accusing him and his wife, Felicidad Sieiro de Noriega, of channeling $3 million in drug profits to banks. Manuel Noriega’s lawyers argued that the money was payment by the CIA, but the couple were convicted and received a 10-year sentence.
The United States had intended to release Noriega on parole in September 2007 after reducing his sentence by half for good behavior. But after a protracted extradition fight, he was sent to France in April 2010 for another trial on the money-laundering charges. Again he was convicted.
He was sentenced this time to seven years in prison in France, but he was eligible for parole much sooner than that. Panama requested his extradition, and he was flown home in December 2011 to serve 20 years for the disappearances of political opponents in the 1980s.
Noriega is survived by his wife and three daughters, Lorena, Sandra and Thays Noriega.