Word: noriega
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...Washington the Reagan Administration firmly backed the failed effort to oust Noriega. "We want to reiterate our unqualified support for civilian constitutional rule in Panama," said White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. With 10,000 troops at U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Panama, Washington is sensitive to charges that it seeks to bully its neighbor. Yet Vice President George Bush talked tough while campaigning in South Carolina for the Republican presidential nomination. "We're not going to be pushed around about the defense of the Panama Canal," Bush said. "We will do whatever is necessary to protect American interests...
Other signs of tension appeared. Ricardo Arias Calderon, president of Panama's anti-Noriega Christian Democratic Party, was held for 45 minutes at the Panama City airport when he arrived from Miami after Delvalle's speech. Calderon and his wife were forced to reboard the plane and exiled to neighboring Costa Rica. "I refused to go," Calderon said, "and then they started shoving me and eventually had to carry me onto the plane." Three U.S. journalists were also returned to their plane and sent to Costa Rica. Panama's principal opposition newspaper, La Prensa, and a TV station owned...
...nation's streets were quiet. Washington had hoped that demonstrators would respond to Delvalle's address with "people power" mass protests like those that toppled Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. Whether out of apathy or fear of confronting Noriega's soldiers, Panamanians mostly stayed at home. "Everything is going pretty much according to plan," said a U.S. observer. "But where are the Panamanian people?" By Friday night all indications were that Noriega had never been in serious danger of losing power...
...Reagan Administration remains convinced that Panama's increasing political and economic isolation will eventually force the general to step down. "Noriega can hang on for a long time," says a U.S. official, "but sooner or later the country is going to start paying very dearly for keeping him in power. It's at that point we'll see a change...
Perhaps. But some experts fear that the U.S. may press too hard on Panama and create sympathy for Noriega at home. "There's no pragmatism in any of this," says a former Panamanian official. "Of course Noriega needs to go. But, really, to have Administration officials tell reporters this and then indict him makes it impossible for him to step aside." The ex-official adds that whatever other qualities Noriega may possess, the Panamanian strongman has no end of stubborn pride...