Word: noriega
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...While Noriega waited, Secretary of State James Baker on Dec. 26 sent a letter to the Vatican arguing that Noriega was not a political refugee but a common criminal fleeing prosecution. Later he assured the Vatican that Noriega would be arrested, not killed, by U.S. forces if he left the embassy...
Laboa then stepped up the pressure. He told Noriega, quietly but forcefully, that no country would give him refuge. (That was not entirely accurate; Cuba might have been willing, but Washington had told the Vatican that sending him there would be unacceptable.) The monsignor pointed out that the troops surrounding the embassy made an escape from the building impossible. Noriega was told he had only two choices: to walk out and surrender to the Americans or to let Laboa arrange for him to be delivered to the new Panamanian government. Asked Noriega: Did it really matter...
...point the general agreed to leave, then changed his mind after discussing the matter with his four fellow refugees. With him were Lieut. Colonel Nivaldo Madrinan, head of Panama's secret police; Captain Eliecer Gaitan, who led the special force charged with protecting Noriega; Belgica de Castillo, the former head of the immigration department, and her husband Carlos Castillo. Laboa at first saw the foursome as an obstacle in his psychostruggle with the general. Later he concluded that they too were pressing him to give up. As an insurance policy, the nuncio sent a written request to Major General Marc...
...never came to that. On Jan. 2 Noriega learned of a suggestion by Vice President Ricardo Arias Calderon that the Vatican embassy staff might temporarily leave the building, set up shop in a Roman Catholic high school across the avenue, and leave Noriega on his own. The general asked Laboa if the proposal was real. Yes, he was assured, it was. Was there a way for him to escape arrest through some diplomatic arrangement? Noriega asked. Laboa shook his head...
Then, on the afternoon of Jan. 3, a huge rally organized by the Civic Crusade, an anti-Noriega group that held similar protests in 1987 and 1988, drew some 15,000 Panamanians to the Avenida Balboa. "Kill the Hitler!" some shouted. Waving white handkerchiefs, they jeered at "Pineapple Face" and raised pineapples skewered on sticks. Only barbed wire and U.S. troops separated the demonstrators from Noriega's shelter. Panamanian officials had tried to discourage the rally, fearing the crowd might try to attack the nunciature and grab Noriega -- an effort that might be prevented only by U.S. gunfire. Noriega decided...