Word: coupe
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...right, Jesse Helms accuses the White House of abandoning the coup plotters in their noble struggle. On the left are a slew of Democrats who have the gall to denounce Bush's inaction in Panama after repeatedly warning him against military adventurism abroad...
...last week's cover under the telling caption "Amateur Hour." The London Economist called the episode Bush's "Bay of Piglets." In a lonely (and uncharacteristic) defense of Bush, The New York Times said, "Mr. Bush may have had good reason to temporize his backing of the Panamanian coup plotters...
...trying to persuade Noriega to retire peacefully instead of killing him or handing him over to the U.S. Their second was counting on Major Francisco Olechea, commander of the elite Battalion 2000, to be neutral; instead, he brought his troops to Noriega's rescue. The widow of the slain coup leader Major Moises Giroldi called Olechea a turncoat. Some U.S. officials, however, suspect that Olechea switched sides because he did not get timely assurances that Giroldi and his troops had succeeded in capturing Noriega. He waited for more than two hours after he knew the coup attempt had begun...
...Administration. Bush believed, correctly, that U.S. participation in the coup attempt would discredit the Panamanian opposition and anger Latin American countries in which the U.S. has more important interests. The President, however, has sent confusing signals by using macho rhetoric about U.S. military options. Such tough talk, designed to quiet right-wing critics, raised expectations in both the U.S. and Panama of American intervention...
Despite the long-standing contacts between the U.S. and Panamanian military and intelligence communities, the U.S. apparently did not learn of the coup until Giroldi spilled his story. Compounding that failure, the CIA officers whom Giroldi informed of the coup failed to arrange for reliable communication with him. "The first, the absolute first thing you do in this case is put somebody with a radio next to him," says a former CIA director...