Manuel Noriega (d. 2017)

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Biography

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian military officer and politician who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the United States invasion of Panama removed him from power.

Timeline

The story of Manuel Noriega, told in moments.

1968 Life

Helps Omar Torrijos seize power in a coup. Becomes head of military intelligence. Starts working with the CIA. Provides intelligence on Cuba, funnels arms to the Contras, and runs drugs through Panama. Washington knows. Washington doesn't care. Yet.

How do you work for the CIA, DEA, and Medellin cartel simultaneously? Was running drugs through Panama just business? Did Washington knowing and not caring protect or corrupt you?

1983 Event

Becomes de facto ruler of Panama as head of the military after maneuvering through a succession of puppet presidents. He's simultaneously on the payroll of the CIA, the DEA, and the Medellin cartel.

Was being on three payrolls at once impressive or inevitable? Did puppet presidents bother you or bore you? How did you see yourself as de facto ruler?

1989 Event

U.S. forces invade Panama in Operation Just Cause. 27,000 troops to arrest one man. Noriega hides in the Vatican embassy. The Army plays rock music at full volume outside. He surrenders on January 3. Somewhere between 200 and 3,000 Panamanians die in the invasion.

Did the Army playing rock music outside the Vatican embassy feel absurd? Was surrendering after holding out a kind of defeat? How many Panamanians dying for your arrest weigh on you?

2017 Death

Dies in a Panama City hospital after brain surgery. He was 83. He'd served time in U.S., French, and Panamanian prisons. Twenty-eight years total between capture and death.

Was 28 years between capture and death justice or just time served? Did three different countries' prisons teach you anything? What did Panama become after you?

Artifacts (11)

America's Prisoner: The Memoirs of Manuel Noriega

Manuel Noriega is the only American prisoner of war. He may be a demon in the eyes of most Americans, but he has a unique and alarming view of the secrets behind U.S. relations with Panama and the...

1997

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Farol alfonsino

Yo dormí bien Yo duermo siempre Mientras yo conserve el sueño Mío es el mundo Estos versos, recuperados de una crónica autobiográfica escrita por Alfonso Reyes antes de ir a dormir por ahí de 1918,...

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If you were to write a book like the Ilāhīnāma of Sanai or the Mantiq ut-Tayr of...

s companion. One day, the two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside Konya when Hussam described to Rumi an idea he had had: "If you were to write a book like the Ilāhīnāma of...

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Curso de historia de drogas

1902

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Curso de historia de drogas ... por ... Juan Manuel Noriega

1902

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Mina de ensueño: Versos

1926

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The Central American Common Market: Its Progress and Aims

1965

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Poesías de Manuel Noriega Trigo

1976

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A Discrete-event Simulation Language for a Microcomputer System

1982

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America's Prisoner

1998

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Manifiesto que el juez de letras de Tlalpam ciudadano Manuel Noriega hace a los sensatos é imparcialees

1829

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