Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega dead at 83
Onetime U.S. ally ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, before U.S. ouster
Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a onetime U.S. ally who was ousted as Panama's dictator by an American invasion in 1989, died late Monday at age 83.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela wrote in his Twitter account that "the death of Manuel A. Noriega closes a chapter in our history."
Muerte de Manuel A. Noriega cierra un capítulo de nuestra historia; sus hijas y sus familiares merecen un sepelio en paz.
—@JC_VarelaVarela added, "His daughters and his relatives deserve to mourn in peace."
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.
Longstanding relationships with spies
At the apex of his power he wielded great influence outside the country as well thanks to longstanding relationships with spy agencies around the world, said R.M. Koster, an American novelist and biographer of Noriega who has lived in Panama for decades.
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 co-operate with a U.S. plan aimed at toppling Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s.
In recent years Noriega suffered various ailments including high blood pressure and bronchitis.
Brain tumour
In 2016, doctors detected the rapid growth of a benign brain tumour that had first been spotted four years earlier, and in the following January a court granted him house arrest to prepare for surgery on the tumour.
He is survived by his wife Felicidad and daughters Lorena, Thays and Sandra.
Following Noriega's 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 neighbourhoods 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.
Rose through the ranks
Known mockingly as "Pineapple Face" 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's Defence Forces in 1962 and steadily rose through the ranks, mainly through loyalty to his mentor, Gen. Omar Torrijos, who became Panama's de facto leader after a 1968 coup.
As Torrijos' 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's 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.
Helped the U.S. seize drugs
Noriega also helped the U.S. seize drugs at sea and track money laundering in Panama's 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, thumbing his nose 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. invasion
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's Medellin cocaine cartel ship "tons and tons of a deadly white powder" to the United States.
The defence cited court documents describing him as the "CIA's man in Panama" and argued that the indictment "smells all the way from here to Washington."
Jurors convicted Noriega in April 1992 of eight of 10 charges. Under the judge's instructions, they were told not to consider the political side of the case — including whether the U.S. had the right to invade Panama and bring Noriega to trial in the first place.