Everything about Manuel Antonio Noriega totally explained
Manuel Antonio Noriega (born
February 11,
1934 He was never officially the
president of Panama, but held the post of "chief executive officer" for a brief period in 1989.
Initially a strong ally of the
United States, Noriega worked with the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the late 1950s to the 1980s, and was on the CIA payroll for much of this time, although the relationship hadn't become
contractual until 1967. By the late 1980s, relations had turned extremely tense between Noriega and the
United States government, due to allegations that he was spying for
Cuba under
Fidel Castro. In 1989 the general was overthrown and captured in the
United States invasion of Panama. He was detained as a
prisoner of war, and later taken to the United States. In 1992 he was convicted under
federal charges of
cocaine trafficking,
racketeering, and
money laundering in
Miami, Florida. Sentenced to 40 years in prison (later reduced to 30 years), Noriega is held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Miami, Florida (FCI Miami).
In December 2004, Noriega was briefly hospitalized after suffering a minor stroke.
Voice of America (VOA) reported Frank Rubino, Noriega's attorney, said Noriega was due to be released from prison on September 9, 2007.
Torrijos was succeeded by Colonel
Florencio Flores. One year later, Flores was succeeded by
Rubén Darío Paredes, and Noriega became
chief of staff. Paredes resigned to run for the presidency, ceding his post as commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces (as the Guard had been renamed) to Noriega. The two men made a deal in which Paredes would run as the
Democratic Revolutionary Party's candidate for president. However, Noriega reneged on the deal.
Ruler of Panama
Noriega enhanced his position as
de facto ruler in August 1983 by promoting himself to full general. Noriega, being paid by the CIA, extended new rights to the United States, and despite the canal treaties allowed the U.S. to set up listening posts in Panama. He aided the American-backed
guerillas in
El Salvador and
Nicaragua by acting as a conduit for U.S. money, and according to some accounts, weapons. However, Noriega insists that his policy during this period was essentially neutral, allowing partisans on both sides of the various conflicts free movement in Panama, as long as they didn't attempt to use Panama as a base of military operations. He rebuffed requests by Salvadoran rightist
Roberto D'Aubuisson to restrict the movements of leaders of the leftist Salvadoran insurgent
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in Panama, and likewise rebuffed demands by
U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North that he provide military assistance to the Nicaraguan
Contras. Noriega insists that his refusal to meet North's demands was the actual basis for the U.S. campaign to oust him.
The U.S. saw Noriega as a
double agent (his
State Department nickname was "rent-a-colonel") and believed that he gave information not only to the U.S. and U.S. allies
Taiwan and
Israel, but also to communist
Cuba. He also sold weapons to the leftist
Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the late 1970s.
In October 1984, Noriega allowed the first presidential elections in 16 years. When the initial results showed former president
Arnulfo Arias on his way to a landslide victory, Noriega halted the count. After brazenly manipulating the results, the government announced that the PRD's candidate,
Nicolás Ardito Barletta, had won by a slim margin of 1,713 votes. Independent estimates suggested that Arias would have won by as many as 50,000 votes had the election been conducted fairly. Barletta, who later became known as "Fraudito", was a former student of
United States Secretary of State
George Schultz at the
University of Chicago, home of the
Chicago Boys (
los muchachos de Chicago).
About this time,
Hugo Spadafora, a vocal critic of Noriega who had been living abroad, accused Noriega of having connections to drug trafficking and announced his intent to return to Panama to oppose him. He was seized from a bus by a
death squad at the Costa Rican border. Later, his decapitated body was found, showing signs of extreme torture, wrapped in a
U.S. Postal Service mailing bag. His family and other groups called for an investigation into his murder, but Noriega stonewalled any attempts at an investigation. Noriega was in
Paris at the time the murder took place, alleged by some to have been at the direction of his
Chiriquí Province commander, Luis Córdoba.
In the book
In the Time of the Tyrants, R.M. Koster relates a conversation captured on wiretap between Noriega (in Paris) and Cordoba:
