Manuel Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (/mɑːnˈwɛl ˌnɔːriˈeɪɡə/ mahn-WEL NOR-ee-AY-gə, Spanish: [maˈnwel noˈɾjeɣa]; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017)[a] was a Panamanian politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never actually served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the U.S. invasion of Panama removed him from power.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Noriega and the second or maternal family name is Moreno.
Manuel Noriega
Guillermo Endara as President
May 29, 2017 (aged 83)
Panama City, Panama
3
- 40 years imprisonment (USA)
- 7 years imprisonment (FRA)
- 60 years imprisonment (PAN)
January 3, 1990
- Federal Correctional Institution, Miami (USA)
- La Santé Prison (FRA)
- El Renacer (PAN)
Panama
1962–1990
Panama Defense Forces
Born in Panama City to a poor pardo family, Noriega studied at the Chorrillos Military School in Lima and at the School of the Americas. He became an officer in the Panamanian army, and rose through the ranks in alliance with Omar Torrijos. In 1968, Torrijos overthrew President Arnulfo Arias in a coup. Noriega became chief of military intelligence in Torrijos's government and, after Torrijos's death in 1981, consolidated power to become Panama's de facto ruler in 1983. Beginning in the 1950s, Noriega worked with U.S. intelligence agencies, and became one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most valued intelligence sources. He also served as a conduit for illicit weapons, military equipment, and cash destined for U.S.-backed forces throughout Latin America.
Noriega's relationship with the U.S. deteriorated in the late 1980s after the murder of Hugo Spadafora and the forced resignation of President Nicolás Ardito Barletta. Eventually, his relationship with intelligence agencies in other countries came to light, and his involvement in drug trafficking was investigated further. In 1988, Noriega was indicted by federal grand juries in Miami and Tampa on charges of racketeering, drug smuggling, and money laundering. The U.S. launched an invasion of Panama following failed negotiations seeking his resignation, and Noriega's annulment of the 1989 Panamanian general election. Noriega was captured and flown to the U.S., where he was tried on the Miami indictment, convicted on most of the charges, and sentenced to 40 years in prison, ultimately serving 17 years after a reduction in his sentence for good behavior. Noriega was extradited to France in 2010, where he was convicted and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for money laundering. In 2011 France extradited him to Panama, where he was incarcerated for crimes committed during his rule, for which he had been tried and convicted in absentia in the 1990s. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in March 2017, Noriega suffered complications during surgery, and died two months later.
Noriega's dictatorship was marked by repression of the media, an expansion of the military, and the persecution of political opponents, effectively controlling the outcomes of any elections. He relied upon military nationalism to maintain his support, and did not espouse a specific social or economic ideology. Noriega was known for his complicated relationship with the U.S., and was described as being its ally and nemesis simultaneously. He has been called one of the best-known dictators of his time, and compared to authoritarian rulers such as Muammar Gaddafi and Augusto Pinochet.
Prosecution and imprisonment[edit]
Prosecution in the United States[edit]
Following his capture Noriega was transferred to a cell in the Miami federal courthouse, where he was arraigned on the ten charges which the Miami grand jury had returned two years earlier.[161] The trial was delayed until September 1991 over whether Noriega could be tried after his detention as a prisoner of war, the admissibility of evidence and witnesses, and how to pay for Noriega's legal defense.[162] The trial ended in April 1992, when Noriega was convicted on eight of the ten charges of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.[163] On July 10, 1992, Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in prison.[164]
In pre-trial proceedings, the government stated that Noriega had received $322,000 from the U.S. Army and the CIA.[14] Noriega insisted that he had in fact been paid close to $10,000,000, and that he should be allowed to testify about the work he had done for the U.S. government. The district court held that information about the operations in which Noriega had played a part supposedly in return for payment from the U.S. was not relevant to his defense. It ruled that "the tendency of such evidence to confuse the issues before the jury substantially outweighed any probative value it might have had."[165] One of the witnesses in the trial was Carlton, who had previously flown shipments of drugs for Noriega.[166] Information about Noriega's connections to the CIA, including his alleged contact with Bush, were kept out of the trial.[167] After the trial, Noriega appealed this exclusionary ruling by the judge to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled in the government's favor, saying that the "potential probative value of this material [...] was relatively marginal".[165]
Return, illness, and death[edit]
In 1999, the Panamanian government had sought the extradition of Noriega from the U.S., as he had been tried in absentia and found guilty of murder in Panama in 1995.[187][188] After Noriega was imprisoned in France, Panama asked the French government to extradite Noriega so he could face trial for human rights violations in Panama.[189] The French government had previously stated that extradition would not happen before the case in France had run its course.[190] On September 23, 2011, a French court ordered a conditional release for Noriega to be extradited to Panama on October 1, 2011.[191][192] Noriega was extradited to Panama on December 11, 2011, and incarcerated at El Renacer prison to serve the sentences, totalling 60 years, that he had accumulated in absentia for crimes committed during his rule.[1][137]
On February 5, 2012, Noriega was moved to Hospital Santo Tomás in Panama City because of high blood pressure and a brain hemorrhage. He remained in the hospital for four days before being returned to prison.[193] It was announced on March 21, 2012, that Noriega had been diagnosed with a brain tumor,[194] which was later revealed to have been benign.[195] On January 23, 2017, he was released from prison and placed under house arrest to prepare for surgery that would remove the tumor.[196] On March 7, 2017, he suffered a brain hemorrhage during surgery which left him in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Hospital Santo Tomás.[1][195] Noriega died on May 29, 2017, at the age of 83.[197][198] Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced Noriega's death shortly before midnight, writing, "The death of Manuel A. Noriega closes a chapter in our history; his daughters and his relatives deserve to bury him in peace."[1]
Image and legacy[edit]
Noriega's authoritarian rule of Panama has been described as a dictatorship,[199][200][201][202] while Noriega himself has been referred to as a "strongman".[203][204] A 2017 obituary from the BBC stated that Noriega "was an opportunist who used his close relationship with the United States to boost his own power in Panama and to cover up the illegal activities for which he was eventually convicted".[28] A 2010 article in The Guardian referred to him as the best known dictator of his time, and as "Panama's answer to Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi".[205] Dinges writes that though Noriega's regime saw a number of murders and crimes, they were similar in scale to those that occurred at the same time under the authoritarian governments of Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, and El Salvador; these governments never saw the level of condemnation from the U.S. that Noriega's did.[206]
After Noriega's death, an article in The Atlantic compared him to Castro and Augusto Pinochet, stating that while Castro had been the nemesis of the U.S., and Pinochet had been its ally, Noriega had managed to be both.[13] It called Noriega the archetype of U.S. intervention in Latin America: "The lawless, vicious leader whom the U.S. cultivated and propped up despite clear and serious flaws."[13] The author stated that although Panama was a freer democracy after Noriega's removal, it was still plagued by corruption and drug trafficking, while Daniel Ortega, whom the U.S. tried to fight with Noriega's help, remained firmly in power in Nicaragua, and argued that this demonstrated the failure of the U.S.'s approach to Latin American interventions.[13]
Noriega took great care to shape perceptions of him. He permitted and encouraged rumors that as Panama's chief of intelligence, he was in possession of negative information about everybody in the country. Dinges suggests that the impression among some officials that Noriega made money off of every transaction in the country may have been cultivated by Noriega himself.[206] Among opposition leaders in Panama, he was seen variously as a sexual pervert, a sadist, and a rapist. Within U.S. government circles, contradictory images abounded; Noriega was seen as a CIA spy, a drug trafficker, a nationalist supporting Torrijos, an ally of Cuba, and an ally of Oliver North and the Contras. He was perceived as a trusted collaborator in the war against drugs, even as the DEA was investigating him for involvement in smuggling. By the time of his removal, he had come to be hated in the U.S., and the invasion was portrayed as an attempt to remove an evil man.[206] Dinges writes that these contradictory images played a large role in shaping the U.S. government's self-contradictory policy towards Noriega.[206]
Noriega used the moniker "El Man" to refer to himself, but he was also derogatorily known as cara de piña, or "pineapple face" in Spanish, as a result of pockmarked features left by an illness in his youth.[207][208] He detested the name, and it would later be the subject of a lawsuit.[1][209] When finally arrested and taken to detention by the Americans, the ‘pineapple’ moniker resurfaced in the form of an oft heard chant “the Pineapple’s in the can”. He lived a lavish lifestyle during his time as the de facto ruler of Panama, described in an obituary as a "libertine life off drug-trade riches, complete with luxurious mansions, cocaine-fueled parties and voluminous collections of antique guns".[1] His bravado during public speeches was remarked upon by commentators; for instance, after his indictment in the U.S., he made a public speech while brandishing a machete, and declaimed "Not one step back!"[1] The attitude of machismo that Noriega adopted has been described as a reaction to the persecution which his half-brother Luis faced as an openly homosexual man in Panama and Peru.[11] This image of strength contrasted sharply with the impact of a mug shot which was taken of him after his capture, and the photo became a symbol of his fall from power.[1] He was described as a deeply superstitious man, who placed trust in a number of talismans which he carried with him.[210]
In popular culture[edit]
British actor Bob Hoskins portrayed Manuel Noriega in the biographical 2000 American television movie Noriega: God's Favorite.[211] Noriega was depicted in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.[212] In July 2014, he filed a lawsuit against the game company Activision for depicting him and using his name without his permission. Noriega, who filed the suit while in prison for murder, claimed he was portrayed as "a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state".[213] On October 28, 2014, the case against Activision was dismissed in California by Judge William H. Fahey.[214][215]
