PANAMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a onetime U. S. ally who was ousted by an American invasion in 1989, died late Monday at age 83.<\/b>
\nBy JUAN ZAMORANO and KATHIA MARTINEZ
PANAMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a onetime U. S. ally who was ousted by an American invasion in 1989, died late Monday at age 83.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela wrote in his Twitter account that \u201cthe death of Manuel A. Noriega closes a chapter in our history.\u201d
Varela added, \u201cHis daughters and his relatives deserve to mourn in peace.\u201d
Noriega ruled with an iron fist, ordering the deaths of those who opposed him and maintaining a murky, close and conflictive relationship with the United States.
After his downfall, Noriega served a 17-year drug sentence in the United States, then was sent to face charges in France. He spent all but the last few months of his final years in a Panamanian prison for murder of political opponents during his 1983-89 regime.
He accused Washington of a conspiracy to keep him behind bars and tied his legal troubles to his refusal to cooperate with a U. S. plan aimed at toppling Nicaragua\u2019s leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s.
In recent years Noriega suffered various ailments including high blood pressure and bronchitis.
In 2016, doctors detected the rapid growth of a benign brain tumor that had first been spotted four years earlier, and in January a court granted him house arrest to prepare for surgery on the tumor.
He is survived by his wife Felicidad and daughters Lorena, Thays and Sandra.
Following Noriega\u2019s ouster Panama underwent huge changes, taking over the Panama Canal from U. S. control in 1999, vastly expanding the waterway and enjoying a boom in tourism and real estate.
Today the Central American nation has little in common with the bombed-out neighborhoods where Noriega hid during the 1989 invasion, before being famously smoked out of his refuge at the Vatican Embassy by incessant, loud rock music blared by U. S. troops.
Known mockingly as \u201cPineapple Face\u201d for his pockmarked complexion, Manuel Antonio Noriega was born poor in Panama City on Feb. 11,1934, and was raised by foster parents.
He joined Panama\u2019s Defense Forces in 1962 and steadily rose through the ranks, mainly through loyalty to his mentor, Gen. Omar Torrijos, who became Panama\u2019s de facto leader after a 1968 coup.
As Torrijos\u2019 intelligence chief, Noriega monitored political opponents and developed close ties with U. S. intelligence agencies guarding against possible threats to the canal. Two years after Torrijos died in a mysterious plane crash in 1981, Noriega became the head of the armed forces and Panama\u2019s de facto ruler.
Noriega was considered a valued CIA asset and was paid millions of dollars for assistance to the U. S. throughout Latin America, including acting as a liaison to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Noriega also helped the U. S. seize drugs at sea and track money laundering in Panama\u2019s banks, and reported on guerrilla and terrorist activities.
Washington ultimately soured on him, especially after a top political opponent was killed in 1985 and Noriega appeared to join forces with Latin American drug traffickers. Foes in the Panamanian military attempted several coups but failed, and their leaders were summarily executed by firing squad.
The beginning of his downfall came in 1988 when federal grand juries in the Florida cities of Miami and Tampa indicted Noriega on drug-trafficking charges.
Initially he reacted with defiance at U. S. economic sanctions designed to drive him from power. He famously waved a machete at a rally while vowing not to leave, and in 1989 he nullified elections that observers say were handily won by the opposition.
U. S. President George H. W. Bush ordered the invasion in December 1989, and Noriega was captured and taken to Miami. During the operation, 23 U. S. military personnel died and 320 were wounded, and the Pentagon estimated 200 Panamanian civilians and 314 soldiers were killed.
Prosecutors accused Noriega of helping Colombia\u2019s Medellin cocaine cartel ship \u201ctons and tons of a deadly white powder\u201d to the United States.
The defense cited court documents describing him as the \u201cCIA\u2019s man in Panama\u201d and argued that the indictment \u201csmells all the way from here to Washington.\u201d
Jurors convicted Noriega in April 1992 of eight of 10 charges. Under the judge\u2019s instructions, they were told not to consider the political side of the case \u2014 including whether the U. S. had the right to invade Panama and bring Noriega to trial in the first place.
During his years at a minimum-security federal prison outside Miami, Noriega got special prisoner of war treatment, allowed to wear his Panamanian military uniform and insignia when in court.
He lived in a bungalow apart from other inmates and had his own television and exercise equipment. He was said to be a TV news junkie and a voracious reader about politics and current events. Related Articles
Ariana Grande planning benefit concert in Manchester
This is not a movie: Spacewalking astronauts pull off urgent station repairs
Warning of \u201cimminent\u201d attack, Britain raises threat level
19 dead in apparent terrorist attack at Ariana Grande concert in England
Startling video shows sea lion snatching girl from pier
After completing his 17-year sentence in 2007, Noriega was extradited to France and received a seven-year sentence for money laundering.
But Panama wanted Noriega to return to face in-absentia convictions and two prison terms of 20 years for embezzlement, corruption and murder of opponents, including military commander Moises Giroldi, who led a failed rebellion on Oct. 3,1989, and Hugo Spadafora, whose decapitated body was found in a mailbag on the border with Costa Rica in 1985.
In mid-2011, France approved his extradition to Panama.
Despite amassing great wealth, Noriega had worked hard to cultivate an image of a man of the people. He lived in a modest, two-story home in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Panama City that stood in stark contrast with the opulent mansions customary among Latin American dictators.
\u201cHe would only say \u2018hello\u2019 very respectfully, \u201d said German Sanchez, who lived next door for 16 years. \u201cYou may think what you like of Noriega, but we can\u2019 t say he was anything but respectful toward his neighbors.\u201d
\u201cThe humble, the poor, the blacks, they are the utmost authority, \u201d Noriega said in one speech.
While some resentment lingers over the U. S. invasion, Noriega has so few supporters in modern-day Panama that attempts to auction off his old home attracted no bidders and the government decided to demolish the decaying building.
\u201cHe is not a figure with political possibilities, \u201d University of Panama sociologist Raul Leis said in 2008. \u201cEven though there\u2019s a small sector that yearns for the Noriega era, it is not a representative figure in the country.\u201d
Noriega broke a long silence in June 2015 when he made a statement from prison on Panamanian television to ask forgiveness of those harmed by his regime.
\u201cI feel like as Christians we all have to forgive, \u201d he said, reading from a handwritten statement. \u201cThe Panamanian people have already overcome this period of dictatorship.\u201d
But for the most part Noriega stayed mum about elite military and civilian associates who thrived on the corruption that he helped instill \u2014 and which still plagues the Central American nation of some 3.9 million people, a favored transshipment point for drugs and a haven for money laundering.
\u201cHe kept his mouth shut and died for the sins of others, \u201d R. M. Koster, an American novelist and the biographer of Noriega, said in a 2014 interview. \u201cNobody else ever went to prison.\u201d
Meanwhile, families of more than 100 who were killed or disappeared during his rule are still seeking justice.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 19<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -3.1<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n