Word: noriega
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PANAMA CITY, Panama--The government of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega declared a national "state of urgency" yesterday that allows it to suspend individual freedoms...
...Administration's tactics in dealing with Noriega, however, soon turned out to be tougher than its toothless drug decertification had suggested. The State Department declared that Panama President Eric Arturo Delvalle had been unconstitutionally dismissed by a legislature controlled by Noriega after Delvalle attempted to fire the general. Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead certified that the proper custodian of Panamanian government funds in the U.S. Federal Reserve and federally insured banks was Juan Sosa, Delvalle's Ambassador in Washington. Sosa thus controls $50 million that would otherwise come under the direction of Noriega's cronies...
Delvalle and Sosa sought other ways to squeeze the Noriega government financially. One was to urge the Administration to hold up $7 million that the U.S. will soon owe Panama as a periodic payment required by the Panama Canal treaties. Delvalle has persuaded most of Panama's worldwide consulates to retain the more than $20 million in annual payments that the government reportedly receives from 11,000 merchant ships registered under the Panamanian flag. In a written response to questions from TIME last week, Delvalle declared from hiding, "All imaginable pressures, no matter how dramatic they may seem, should...
Dropping all pretense that Delvalle is calling the shots alone, the State Department asked again for Noriega's removal. Secretary of State George Shultz declared that "Noriega is a drug runner and he has to go." Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams explained that the Noriega government has a public payroll of $65 million a month and has only enough cash left for another month. "After that, he's out of money...
Worried about a financial collapse, depositors rushed to withdraw cash from Panamanian banks, and the Panama National Bank declared that it could not help meet the demands placed on these institutions. All banks in the country were shut down by Friday. An anti-Noriega general strike gradually picked up steam before being called off by its leaders, who were worried that an economic panic might produce widespread violence...