Manuel Noriega

Manuel Antonio Noriega (around 1990)

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (born February 11, 1938 , according to French court records, other sources give 1934, 1935 or 1940 as the year of birth in Panama City ; † May 29, 2017 ibid), alias: "Cara de Piña" , English also "Pineapple Face" (German: pineapple face , in Latin America a pejorative term for pockmarked or pimply face), was de facto the ruler in Panama from August 12, 1983 to December 20, 1989 . He was sentenced to prison by a US court in 1992 for drug trafficking , extortion and conspiracy and has been a prisoner until his death.

Noriega is often viewed as the former President of Panama . He himself renounced this title and called himself only "Chief of the National Guard", which was later converted into the Fuerzas de Defensa de Panamá . On December 15, 1989, the National Assembly of Panama appointed him head of government with extraordinary and unrestricted rights.

Life

As an illegitimate child, Manuel Noriega entered a church nursing home at the age of five and was later able to attend Instituto Nacional, Panama's most prestigious high school. His original desire to study medicine did not come true, but with the help of relationships, he received a scholarship that allowed him to attend the military academy in Peru . From 1964 he served in the National Guard and was also trained in the United States at the School of the Americas . At the end of 1969 he supported the later President Omar Torrijos in the struggle for power in Panama and was rewarded with the post of head of the military secret service (G-2). He worked closely with the CIA and helped infiltrate the drug cartels in Colombia, among others , for which he was paid $ 200,000 a year at times.

Commander of the National Guard

In August 1983, Noriega became the commander of the National Guard. He supported the election of Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino as president in May 1984 , with massive allegations of election fraud .

In the mid-1980s, Noriega was targeted by the US drug search. Noriega also wanted to continue Omar Torrijos' policy. So he refused to extend the operation of the School of the Americas military training camp .

In 1989 the Senate Subcommittee, chaired by John Kerry, ruled : “ The saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate US policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each US government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing… ”(German:“ The story of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the worst foreign policy failures for the United States. During the 1970s and 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate US policy towards his country, while skillfully gaining near absolute power in Panama, it is clear that any US government agency that had a relationship with Noriega , Corruption and drug trafficking knowingly ignored… ”).

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the main anti-drug agency in the United States, accused Noriega of being instrumental in drug trafficking and importation into the United States by providing Panama as a seemingly neutral base for the uncontrolled import of drugs into the United States and had it paid accordingly. In 1986, US media revealed that Noriega had been on the CIA's payroll for at least ten years. Since weapons were sent via Panama to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, which were supposed to overthrow the left-wing Sandinista , the CIA turned a blind eye to Noriega doing business with the Medellín cartel .

US invasion of Panama and arrest

Manuel Noriega with two agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on board a US Air Force aircraft

On December 20, 1989, a US invasion of Panama began . It was the largest airborne operation in the United States at the time after World War II . Noriega surrendered to the US invasion forces on January 3, 1990 , after spending eleven days uninvited in the nunciature of the Holy See . Psychological warfare specialists were called in. After ten days, Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990. During his stay at the embassy , the US Marines filled the area with loud rock music to make him resign.

On July 10, 1992, a US court in Miami sentenced him to 40 years' imprisonment. The sentence was later reduced to 17 years for good conduct. Following the decision of a US federal judge , Noriega was given prisoner-of-war status . Until his extradition to France, he was held in a federal prison in Miami, Dade County , Florida , where he lived in an apartment with office space.

Extradition and trial in France

As the end of his term in the United States became apparent in 2007, a legal tug-of-war began over his whereabouts, given two international arrest warrants :

• In Panama, Noriega was sentenced in absentia on October 4, 1994 to 20 years in prison for the murder of dissident Hugo Spadafora.
• In France, Noriega was sentenced in absentia in 1999 to ten years in prison and a fine equivalent to 11.2 million euros. It was about $ 3.15 million in money laundering from drug deals . According to the French law enforcement agency, the former ruler invested some of the money in luxury properties in Paris and on the Côte d'Azur. Noriega denied the money laundering charge. It was about money from his private assets and payments from the US secret service CIA, for which he was an informant.

The former general really wanted to be extradited to his home country, which he hoped would be house arrest rather than jail time. In Panama, the ex-dictator would have to serve 60 years in prison for corruption and the murder of political opponents.

US judges ruled on July 17, 2007 that Noriega would be extradited to France in September of the same year. His lawyers fought against this. After all legal proceedings against his extradition were unsuccessful, Noriega was transferred to France on April 26, 2010.

His attorneys sought the annulment of his conviction and a new trial so that their client could defend himself properly. The trial in the French capital began on June 28th. On July 7, 2010, a Paris criminal court sentenced Noriega to seven years in prison for money laundering.

Extradition to Panama

Panama applied for extradition from France, which a French court ordered on September 23, 2011. On December 11, 2011, he was transferred to Panama to stand trial there. He was detained in El Renacer Prison, right on the Panama Canal .

At the end of January 2017, he was released from house arrest pending tumor treatment. He died as a result of his illness on the night of May 29th to 30th, 2017.

See also

• List of Presidents of Panama
• Bank of Credit and Commerce International

literature

• Frederick Kempe: The rise and fall of Noriegas. Panama Poker - dangerous game with the USA . Hannibal, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-85445-059-1 .
• Manuel Noriega, Peter Eisner: America's Prisoner. The Memoirs of Manuel Noriega . Random House, New York 1997, ISBN 0-679-43227-2 .
• John Perkins : Confessions of an Economic Hit Man . Riemann, Munich, 4th edition 2005, ISBN 978-3-570-50066-8 .
• Stephen Kinzer : Overthrow. America's century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq , New York (Times Books) 2006. ISBN 0-8050-7861-4 . ISBN 978-0-8050-7861-9 , in German translation: Putsch! On the history of American imperialism , Frankfurt am Main (Eichborn) 2007. ISBN 978-3-8218-4587-6 .

Movie and TV

• The Panama Deception (documentary, USA 1992, director: Barbara Trent , screenplay: David Kasper )
• Noriega - God's darling or monster? (Movie made for TV, USA 2000, directed by Roger Spottiswoode , with Bob Hoskins in the role of Noriegas)

Web links

• Documentation Tyrants and Dictators. Manuel Noriega , length approx. 45 min, on youtube.com
• The Panama Deception on youtube.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ex-dictator Noriega extradited to France. In: Focus Online . April 27, 2010.
2. ↑ Manuel Noriega , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 07/2011 from February 15, 2011, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on May 30, 2017 ( beginning of article freely accessible)
3. ↑ http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/9/20100427/twl-noriega-de-hombre-fuerte-a-papa-cali-1ece02c.html Genealogie {dead link | url = http: //es.noticias .yahoo.com / 9/20100427 / twl-noriega-de-hombre-fuerte-a-papa-cali-1ece02c.html | date = 2018-12 | archivebot = 2018-12-01 12:48:56 InternetArchiveBot}} (Link not available)
4. ↑ Manuel Noriega dead: Panama's former strongman dies in hospital aged 83. In: The Daily Telegraph . May 30, 2017, accessed May 30, 2017.
5. ^ Allan Metz: Manuel Noriega and the “Panama Crisis” . An Annotated Bibliography. In: Reference Services Review . tape 19 , no. 3 . MCB UP Ltd, 1991, ISSN  0090-7324 , p. 7-44 .
6. ↑ Youtube. Retrieved January 4, 2010 . 
7. ↑ Spanish: piña = pine cones (of pino = jaw .), Possibly also (pine) cones , in the New World but especially the pineapple , Latin America still (-Frucht) Anana (s) referred to
8. ↑ Randal C. Archibold: Manuel Noriega, Dictator Ousted by US in Panama, this at 83 . In: The New York Times . May 30, 2017 ( nytimes.com ).
9. ↑ limited preview in the Google book search
10. ↑ Where despots were caught. In: handelsblatt.de.
11. ↑ The Rock 'n' Roll assault on Noriega. In: gwu.edu. (English).
12. ↑ ^{a b} Michaela Wiegel : Noriega transferred to Paris . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from April 28, 2010.
13. ↑ AFP : US seeks to extradite Panama's Noriega to France . Miami, July 18, 2007.
14. ^ Augsburger Allgemeine dated June 26, 2010: Farewell to luxury
15. ↑ USA extradite ex-dictator Noriega to France ( Memento from May 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , Der Standard from April 27, 2010
16. ↑ Noriega sentenced to seven years in prison , FAZ of July 7, 2010
17. ↑ Report on spiegel.de from December 11, 2011 , accessed on December 11, 2011
18. ↑ Panama's ex-dictator Noriega released from prison under house arrest ( memento of the original from February 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , zeit.de, January 29, 2017. 
19. ↑ Panama's ex-dictator Noriega comes from prison under house arrest ( memento of the original dated February 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , zeit.de, January 24, 2017.