Word: panama
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Ordinarily Monsignor Jose Sebastian Laboa, the Vatican's Ambassador to Panama, greets visitors with a tray of coffee and cake. But when General Manuel Antonio Noriega strode into the papal embassy on Christmas Eve, such hospitality was hardly appropriate. The fugitive strongman was agitated, pacing the nunciature's marble floors like a caged tiger. The four aides who accompanied him were carrying suspicious vials of injectable liquids and an assortment of guns. Laboa demanded that Noriega relinquish the weapons. At first he refused, but then he apparently complied -- although a submachine gun was later found under...
...given a stark 10-ft. by 6-ft. rear room, decorated only with a crucifix. From his spartan quarters Noriega could not see the U.S. soldiers deployed outside on the Avenida Balboa; his only window was opaque. His television set did not work. There was no air conditioning. In Panama's 90 degrees heat, that hardly made for comfort...
...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...
...evening of Jan. 3, Noriega, described by Panama's Archbishop Marcos McGrath as "a broken man," emerged from his room in a crisp tan general's uniform with four stars. He gave Madrinan a farewell embrace; Madrinan stepped back and saluted. Noriega asked to be allowed to keep the Bible as a memento of his stay...
...surrendered to General Cisneros. He was hustled to a Black Hawk helicopter waiting nearby and flown to Howard Air Force Base, where he was ushered into a C-130 Air Force transport and formally arrested by officials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. After the plane left Panama for Florida, the once feared strongman broke into tears...