Ex-Panamanian strongman Noriega dies
GENERAL Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian strongman and one-time American ally toppled from power in a 1989 US invasion and who spent more than two decades imprisoned on drug dealing and conspiracy convictions, died on Monday. He is thought to have been 83.
The cause of death was not announced, but Noriega had been in intensive care at a hospital for months after complications from surgery to remove a benign brain tumour.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced the death on Twitter, saying it closed a chapter in the country’s history.
A career military man, Noriega led the Panamanian Defence Forces from 1983 until President George HW Bush ordered the invasion on December 20, 1989, which followed months of deteriorating relations between Panama and the US.
Noriega was a polarising figure for decades after he was led in chains from Panama by US marshals on January 4, 1990, to a federal prison in Miami.
His opponents said Noriega was a brute who killed his opponents and hid millions of dollars in gains from drug and other corruption payments.
Noriega consistently rejected such charges, which he said were trumped up by opponents.
“Why, after being the man the United States could count on, did I become the enemy?” Noriega asked bitterly in jailhouse interviews with US reporter Peter Eisner. “Because I said no. No to allowing the United States to run a school for dictators any longer in Panamanian territory. No to the request that Panama be used as a staging base for the Salvadoran death squads and the Nicaraguan contras.”
Before his fall from favour, US officials considered Noriega a reliable protector of stability in Panama. As early as his student days in the 1950s, he was an eager informant for the US intelligence services.
Bush justified the invasion by saying that the Panamanian leader had declared war on the US first, that he had made Panama a haven for drug dealers and that he had endangered open shipping channels through the Panama Canal.
Noriega’s opponents charged he had ordered the killing of a prominent political opponent; international monitors, including former president Jimmy Carter, denounced Panamanian elections in 1989 as fraudulent.
More than 25 000 US troops launched the December 20 invasion, bombarding key Panamanian military installations, destroying the headquarters, and killing and injuring people in a poor Panama City neighbourhood.
Noriega eluded capture before seeking refuge days later at the Vatican Embassy in the Panamanian capital. He surrendered to US forces on January 3, 1990. – Washington Post