Havana
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A Latin American strongman accused of drug trafficking and rigging elections overtly defies the White House regardless of threats of military action.
It was 1989 and the then military dictator of Panama Manuel Noriega, very similar to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro immediately, had develop into public enemy primary in Washington, amid allegations that he took thousands and thousands of {dollars} to permit drug cartels to function in his nation.
The US invasion of Panama led to Noriega’s seize and restored democracy to the Central American nation.
To some pushing for military action towards Maduro, the Panama invasion looks like a mannequin – nevertheless imperfect – for what the US is attempting to perform in Venezuela.
“Bush 41 took Panamanian leader Noriega down under similar circumstances,” Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) posted on X Thursday.
“There is a drug caliphate in our backyard that includes Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba. I am very glad President Trump is dedicated to ending this reign of terror,” he added.
Officials from all three international locations have denied any ties to trafficking.
Unlike Maduro, a dedicated socialist and longtime thorn within the facet of US international coverage goals within the area, Noriega, not less than initially, introduced himself as a US ally.
Through a lot of his bloody rise to energy in Panama – the small however geopolitically key nation with its canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – Noriega was a CIA asset, helping to stamp out the unfold of leftist governments in Latin America.
But as CIA arms flowed by way of Panama to help anti-communist rebels in Central America, Noriega had a secret: He was additionally permitting tons of cocaine to go north to the US.
Noriega’s fungible loyalties led former US Ambassador to Panama Ambler Moss to declare of the Panamanian dictator, “You can’t buy him, but you can sure as hell rent him.”
By 1989 Noriega’s double dealing and brutal crackdown on civil society led to Washington issuing an ultimatum: Go into exile or else.
Like Maduro immediately – who vehemently denies US allegations of drug trafficking – Noriega had to decide on whether or not to flee or face off with a military far superior to his personal.
Initially, retired Panamanian General Rubén Darío Paredes instructed NCS, Noriega opted for exile.
“He began making arrangements for the succession of command according to the hierarchy, but he had a moment of weakness,” Paredes stated. “When many of that group who had been exposed began to think about their fate, right? They were exposed, and they made common cause and convinced Noriega that he was the ultimate authority, that there was no turning back. Then Noriega backed down and that’s when the invasion happened.”
Facing Noriega’s defiance and worsening repression, US President George H.W. Bush ordered the invasion of Panama – codenamed “Operation Just Cause” – in December 1989, arguing Noriega’s rule posed a risk to US lives and safety.
With greater than 20,000 US troops on Panamanian soil, Noriega took refuge within the Vatican’s embassy in Panama City for 10 days. US troops surrounded the compound with loudspeakers blasting his hideout with deafening heavy metallic music by way of the evening.
Noriega ultimately surrendered to US Drug Enforcement Administration officers on January 3, 1990.
His trial in 1991 was known as the “trial of the century” by the DEA and ultimately noticed him discovered responsible on eight counts and sentenced to 40 years in jail.
While taking down a repressive chief with ties to drug cartels – Maduro additionally faces a US indictment for trafficking – appears equivalent to US’ objectives in Venezuela, there are essential variations.
Panama in 1989, when the US invasion happened, solely had a inhabitants of 2.5 million, Venezuela’s inhabitants immediately is over 28 million.
Venezuela’s land mass is greater than ten occasions the scale of Panama – which, on the time of the invasion, hosted US military bases.
Moreover, as with Noriega when he thought-about exile, many in Maduro’s interior circle face US trafficking allegations or million-dollar rewards for their seize, making them unlikely to see him go away energy with out a battle.
Finally, any US military action in Venezuela would doubtless must take care of the nation’s impenetrable jungles and dense slums, the place gang members are so closely armed that even the Venezuelan military not often enters.
Frank Mora, former US Ambassador on the group of American states OAS who has studied how a doable US invasion may unfold and the hurdles the US military faces in deposing Maduro, stated the US may topple the Venezuelan chief simply however conserving the peace is one other matter.
“The question of Venezuelan military capability is not a serious one,” Mora stated. “It’s not one that could sustain a US invasion, but my concern has always been, it’s not just the time that it requires to bring down the regime, it’s the day after, and how do you maintain order in a country that has essentially collapsed?”
While it stays unclear if the US will put any boots on the bottom and even perform strikes in Venezuela, more and more it seems the US is not going to rely on the help of many regional allies.
At a information convention on Thursday, Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, who publicly opposed the Noriega dictatorship earlier than the US invasion, stated his nation wouldn’t host any US forces that may participate in a military action towards Venezuela.
“In relation to Venezuela we don’t have anything to do with that,” Mulino stated. “Panama is not lending its territory for any hostile act against Venezuela or another country in the world.”