{"id":323570,"date":"2017-05-30T06:35:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T06:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=323570"},"modified":"2017-05-30T06:35:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T06:35:11","slug":"ex-panama-military-ruler-manuel-noriega-dies-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/05\/ex-panama-military-ruler-manuel-noriega-dies-at-83\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Panama military ruler Manuel Noriega dies at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"
General Manuel Antonio Noriega, former military leader of Panama, has died aged 83, officials have announced.<\/p>\n
Noriega recently underwent an operation after suffering a haemorrhage following brain surgery.<\/p>\n
Noriega had been a key US ally but was forcibly removed when American troops invaded in 1989 and was later jailed in the US on drugs and laundering charges.<\/p>\n
He spent the rest of his life in custody, latterly in Panama for murder, corruption and embezzlement.<\/p>\n
But the former leader was released from jail in January to prepare for the operation in early March to remove a brain tumour.<\/p>\n
He underwent further surgery after cerebral bleeding but died late on Monday local time in Panama City’s Santo Tomas hospital, Secretary of State for Communication Manuel Dominguez announced.<\/p>\n
Although he was never elected to office, Noriega became the de facto leader of Panama, serving a six-year tenure as military governor in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
A strong supporter of the United States, he became a key ally in Washington’s attempts to battle the influence of communism in central America.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the US tired of his increasingly repressive role internally in Panama, and there were indications he was selling his services to other intelligence bodies, not to mention drug-trafficking organisations.<\/p>\n
Noriega was indicted in a US federal court on drug-trafficking charges in 1988 and, after US observers declared he had stolen the 1989 election, President George HW Bush launched an invasion.<\/p>\n
Noriega sought refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Panama City.<\/p>\n
US troops flushed him out was to play deafening pop and heavy metal music non-stop outside.<\/p>\n
By 3 January 1990, Noriega surrendered and was flown to the US to face drug-trafficking, money-laundering and racketeering charges, serving 17 years in jail there.<\/p>\n
While in jail he was convicted in absentia in France of money-laundering and sentenced to seven years. After the US extradited him to France, a court there approved a request from Panama in December 2010 to send him back home, where he was convicted again.<\/p>\n
A US Senate sub-committee once described Washington’s relationship with Noriega as one of the United States’ most serious foreign policy failures.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
General Manuel Antonio Noriega, former military leader of Panama, has died aged 83, officials have announced. Noriega recently underwent an operation after suffering a haemorrhage following brain surgery. Noriega had been a key US ally but was forcibly removed when American troops invaded in 1989 and was later jailed in the US on drugs and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":323572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[7556,7557,7558],"yoast_head":"\n