Noriega's dictatorship was marked by repression of the media, an expansion of the military, and the persecution of political opponents, effectively controlling the outcomes of any elections.
Manuel Noriega's wife Felicidad was arraigned for allegedly shoplifting buttons, one day after the former Panamanian dictator was convicted of dealing drugs for a cocaine cartel.
Much like Nicolae Ceaușescu’s plumbing fetish, there are always reckonings for authoritarian leaders and their families.
El Mango Supremo Trumpo is counting on your historical amnesia about what “just cause” means for the GOP: be-cause rather than unjust cause. Isn’t it always about real estate and recycling flimsy reasons. The best one will be that because the Department of Defense has been rebranded to Department of War, then the DoD’s manuals don’t apply to extrajudicial killings at sea ordered by the Secretary of Defense/War.
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If the Venezuelan sailors were enemy combatants, then the 2nd strike is a war crime.
If the Venezuelan sailors weren’t enemy combatants, then both strikes are criminal murder.
It’s that simple.
— Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer.com) Nov 30, 2025 at 3:42 PM
When even John Bolton thinks invading Venezuela is a bad idea, it's a bad idea
The move to designate Maduro and many of his allies as terrorists is understood to be part of a legal gambit by which Trump administration officials believe they can unlock the ability to conduct military operations in and around Venezuela using authorities similar to those used by multiple administrations while conducting the post-9/11 global “War on Terror.”
The United States is not at war with Venezuela and Congress has not authorized military force against the country, but that has not stopped the Trump administration from conducting a series of airstrikes on small boats alleged to be smuggling narcotics that have killed at least 80 people thus far.
The Pentagon has also deployed more than 12 warships — including the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group — and 15,000 troops to the region as part of what Hegseth has dubbed “Operation Southern Spear.”
Last week, Trump claimed the U.S. would begin strikes against land-based drug smuggling “very soon” despite the lack of clear authority to send troops into the country. He also posted to social media over the weekend declaring that commercial aviators and others should “consider the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety.”
He also told reporters on Sunday that he had spoken with Maduro but did not provide details on the content of the purported conversation.
Operation Nifty Package was a United States Delta Force and Navy SEAL-operated plan conducted in 1989 designed to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. When Noriega took refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See (diplomatic quarter), deafening music and other psychological warfare tactics were used to convince him to exit and surrender himself.
White House AI is Ready for Maduro
(2017)
Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the military strongman and former CIA informant who was forced from power by an American invasion and spent the last 27 years of his life in prison, died late Monday after suffering a brain hemorrhage resulting from surgery. He was 83.
His death was announced on Twitter by Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, who said it "closes a chapter in our history; his daughters and his family deserve a funeral in peace."
Noriega had been transferred to house arrest in Panama City on Jan. 29 to prepare for a procedure to remove a benign brain tumor. He went in for a second surgery on March 7, his daughters said, but was left in critical condition after the procedure.
Raised in the Panama City slums, Noriega rose to prominence in Panama under Gen. Omar Torrijos, who seized power in a 1968 coup. Two years after Torrijos was killed in a plane crash, Noriega took control of the Panamanian government. He was propped up by U.S. officials, who paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight drug trafficking. He also served as a CIA informant.
According to testimony by former U.S. officials, his assistance was crucial to advancing U.S. foreign policy interests in South America in the 1980s. Donald Winters, chief of CIA operations in Panama, said Noriega brokered deals with South American leaders and acted as a liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro. He also provided intelligence about guerrilla and terrorist activities, even granting safe haven to the U.S.-backed former Shah of Iran.
www.cbsnews.com/…
By the early 1970s, American law enforcement officials had reports of Noriega's possible involvement with narcotics trafficking.[40] No formal criminal investigations were begun, and no indictment was brought: according to Dinges, this was due to the potential diplomatic consequences.[40][41] This evidence included the testimony of an arrested boat courier, and of a drug smuggler arrested in New York.[41]
Operation Nifty Package was a United States Delta Force and Navy SEAL-operated plan conducted in 1989 designed to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. When Noriega took refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See (diplomatic quarter), deafening music and other psychological warfare tactics were used to convince him to exit and surrender himself.
The United States claimed that after ten days of psychological harassment, the Papal Nuncio (ambassador) Monsignor Laboa had threatened to revoke Noriega's sanctuary if he didn't surrender to the United States, although Laboa insisted that he had made no threats of revoking the right of asylum under the Church, but had used his own "precisely calibrated psychological campaign" to force Noriega's departure.[2]
Although the operation was successful, Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor, would later point to the psychological harassment of the Papal Nuncio as "a low moment in U.S. Army history", noting that their approach had been silly, reproachable, and undignified.[3]
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Roger Stone is promoting Prospera, a “Freedom City” (per Stone) in Honduras backed by Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen (who once tweeted that “anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people…”) & Balaji Srinivasan (author of The Network State: How to Build a New Country). 1/
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— Jenny Cohn (@jennycohn.bsky.social) Feb 11, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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I disagree with John Feeley that the people pushing for war with Venezuela are "too stupid to read their own history" about Iraq. From their perspective, the Iraq war was a great idea & largely a success, so why not do it over again with Venezuela?
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— ☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ (@schwarz.bsky.social) Nov 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
