Posted on 03/30/2007 6:10:15 AM PDT by kellynla
Panama's National Assembly is quietly preparing to pass new legislation that would enable the country's former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega to become a free man if he returns to Panama when he is released from a U.S. federal prison in September.
Noriega ruled Panama with an iron hand from 1981 to 1989, before he was ousted by a U.S. invasion operation called "Just Cause," ordered by President George H.W. Bush. A year earlier, Noriega had been indicted on federal drug charges in the U.S.
In the end, the invasion cost the lives of 23 American troops. The Panamanian death toll was put at 500 by the United Nations, but some estimates run as high as 5,000.
Noriega was captured and convicted in Miami on drug trafficking charges and given a 40-year sentence, which was later reduced to 30 years. He will have served 17 years when he is released from a federal prison in Miami, Fla.
The Panamanian government has repeatedly stated its intention to have Noriega extradited to Panama when he is released from jail. Noriega faces several criminal convictions in Panama, with sentences totaling 64 years in prison.
He has been convicted in three murder trials, a corruption trial and a kidnapping case. The cases include such high profile victims as Hugo Spadafora, an opposition figure whose corpse was found beheaded near the border with Costa Rica in 1985, and nine army officers executed by firing squad in 1989 for plotting to overthrow him.
But Noriega himself wants to return to Panama as well, according to statements made by his lawyer, Frank Rubino.
Although newspaper reports claim that a formal request for political asylum has been filed in the Dominican Republic, Rubino said that, as Noriega was granted the status of "prisoner of war" during his trial, the U.S. under the Geneva Conventions has no other option than to send him back to Panama.
Why would Noriega want to return to Panama and spend the rest of his life in jail? The answer lies deeply hidden within a set of penal code reforms that have just been passed by Panama's National Assembly, where the ruling PRD party of president Martin Torrijos has the majority of the votes.
Torrijos, himself a son of former military dictator Omar Torrijos, installed a special presidential commission last year to revise Panama's criminal code. This commission, dominated by former Noriega associates and cronies, presented a proposal for reforms that has been controversial from day one.
Journalists and international press organizations protested draconian new laws against press freedom. Women's groups lamented the lax treatment of child sex abusers and domestic violence in the revised code. Anti-corruption activists denounced shorter sentences for corrupt officials and other measures that would further hamper the struggle against already rampant corruption in Panama.
Nobody said anything about Noriega, who stands to benefit greatly from the new penal code. When Noriega returns to Panama, he can first have his sentences converted to house arrest. A new article in the penal code allows this for anyone at least 70 years old. Noriega will be 71 when released.
While serving time in one of his mansions, he can then ask the Supreme Court to overturn his convictions based on another new article in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which explicitly states the right of any suspect not to be tried in absentia. Since the trials against Noriega took place while he was incarcerated in the U.S. and he had no means of attending them, he may thus claim that his rights were violated.
The subject of Noriega's return is treated as if it were a state secret in Panama. Politicians and officials do not want to discuss nor comment on these preparations for his safe return, and only refer to the official policy of asking for Noriega to be extradited to Panama.
Loyalties constantly change in this country: Lawyer Ana Matilda Gomez, for example, served as legal counsel on Panama's Truth Commission, which published a comprehensive report about the murders and disappearances under the military dictatorship. She now serves as Panama's Attorney General, and repeated requests for an interview about Noriega's return and the penal code reforms were denied.
The only person who has addressed the subject publicly in Panama has been Dr. Miguel Antonio Bernal, a well-respected former Fulbright resident scholar and one of the leading figures in the resistance against Noriega's regime. He published an underground newspaper while living in forced exile in the U.S.
"People like me have nothing to fear from Noriega," Bernal said. "It's his friends and associates who are now part of the government who are afraid, afraid that he will start talking. That's why they are doing him this favor.
"I know what it is to live in exile, so I think the General should indeed come home," Bernal told NewsMax. "He will most likely go to the Dominican Republic first, where he has family and assets, to set everything up from there. I have no doubt he'll be involved in politics again, he is the type of person who is used to giving orders. If so, I'll oppose him as forcefully as I've done for the 18 years of dictatorship we've lived through in this country."
ALI BABA AND THE 40 THIEVES
Panamanians sometimes say: "When they arrested Noriega they took Ali Baba, but they left the 40 thieves." Indeed, a list of names of who's in charge of Panama today, even when far from complete, reads like a who's who of the dictatorship days:
First, the commission that drafted the penal code reforms is dominated by members who've played an active role in the military regime.
Wilfredo Saenz, for example, was a criminal magistrate on the Superior Tribunal. Ana Belfon was one of Noriega's most loyal and fanatic prosecutors. Jerry Wilson was a magistrate of the Supreme Court during the heyday of Noriega's drug trafficking. José Acevedo was another criminal judge, while lawyer Silvio Guerra is still defending Noriega's torturers in the few cases that have been prosecuted.
In the government, next to president Martin Torrijos himself, we find Minister of Public Works Benjamin Colamarco, who was the founding father of the infamous "dignity battalions," Noriega's goon squad. His wife, Marta Amado Trevia, is the sister of Noriega's former mistress Vicky Amado and used to be head of the Banco Hipotecario Nacional. She now presides over the Postal Service.
Another member of Noriega's goon squad was Balbina Herrera, now Minister of Housing. Jorge Ritter, best described as a party ideologist of Noriegismo, is now an influential presidential advisor. Juan Bosco Bernal, a former minister under Noriega, is now an ambassador.
Dilio Arcia, a Supreme Court magistrate during the Noriega days, is today vice-minister of the presidency. Ex-Colonel Diaz Herrera, member of the small group surrounding Noriega, now represents Panama as its ambassador in Peru. Daniel Delgado Diamante, formerly in charge of the army's Puma division and involved in several multi-million dollar corruption schemes, today heads the Customs Service.
When the Torrijos government appointed one of Noriega's daughters to a diplomatic position in the Dominican Republic, protests were heard in Panama. She later resigned.
Shortly thereafter, another daughter of Noriega was hired, this time serving the diplomatic mission in Singapore.
I'm sure Chavez will be at the airport, ready to embrace him.
Pineapple-Face *ping*
"Ex-Colonel Diaz Herrera"
This was the guy who strutted up and down in front of the 12 of us US military motorcyclists who were arrested for riding in uniform (which was completely permissible under the Canal Treaty [turns head and spits contemptuously]) in Feb '88, telling us, "You guys have been violatin' the treaty for jears an' we won' poot up with it anymore!". I swear, he looked like a Cagney wannabe - I almost laughed out loud.
These people are power-hungry snakes. If Panama votes them in, the country deserves what it gets.
Colonel, USAFR
Actually, this may have been the start of what has become a period of abject idiocy in U.S. foreign policy.
I don't give a damn about the guy, but the notion of having a foreign head of state (or even a dictator) brought to the U.S. and prosecuted under U.S. drug laws always struck me as downright preposterous.
Doesn't there have to be a lot more to the story?
Maybe there is. Once I start hearing/reading about that "more to the story," I'll be able to comment on it. Until then, I can only comment on what we know right now.
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