Word: noriega
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Following the second failed coup attempt last October, Noriega rounded up dozens of officers for imprisonment or execution, deepening tensions in the barracks. In public, he sometimes appeared drunk and showed the telltale signs of cocaine abuse. Noriega supporters say that in December, in the wake of reports that Bush had authorized a new covert plan to oust him, the general sank into a deep depression. Under mounting pressure, trusting no one, he was fatalistic about his chances of surviving his confrontation with...
Many American officials feel that a fitting coda to Noriega's infamous career would be his capture and extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on the 15 drug-related and money-laundering charges handed down by federal grand juries in Tampa and Miami in February 1988. But to convict Noriega, prosecutors would have to rely largely on the testimony of two convicted felons who traded their stories for plea bargains. Moreover, Noriega's long association with the CIA could block any successful prosecution. His lawyers are certain to demand access to classified material that the Government will be reluctant...
First, however, Noriega must be found. At week's end a State Department official said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Kozak had traveled to Panama to advise the Endara government and try to negotiate Noriega's surrender. One of the general's American lawyers, Raymond Takiff, predicts that will never happen. "I feel unhappily secure in my belief that he will be killed," Takiff says. "He will not be captured...
Endara's first words to his countrymen on Wednesday were broadcast not by Panamanian radio, which was still controlled by Noriega's forces, but by Radio Impacto in Costa Rica, which had taped him by telephone. On Thursday the new President, under the protection of American soldiers, left the base for his first speech to the National Assembly. He pledged to lead "a government of reconstruction and reconciliation," but by then his fledgling regime distinctly bore the label "Made in U.S.A...
...seriously damaged by U.S. economic sanctions, then savaged by invasion and ravaged by looters. His support comes mostly from the white business and professional classes in Panama City; he must win over the darker-skinned Panamanians of the barrios and the countryside -- those who felt emboldened and empowered by Noriega's populist anti-Yanqui tirades...