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The Dictator on the CIA's Payroll: Manuel Noriega's Betrayal and the US Invasion of Panama
Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator captured in a US invasion, was a long-time CIA asset. For years, he received up to $200,000 annually from the US for intelligence while simultaneously collaborating with drug cartels. This tangled web of convenience and crime ultimately led to his downfall.
In the early hours of December 20, 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, a full-scale invasion of Panama. The mission's target was a single man: the country's defiant military dictator, Manuel Noriega. To the American public, he was a drug-trafficking tyrant who threatened US interests. But the stunning truth was far more complex and damning: for decades, Noriega had been on the CIA's payroll.
The Making of a Double Agent
Manuel Noriega's relationship with American intelligence began long before he seized power. Recruited by the CIA as early as the late 1950s while he was a young military cadet, Noriega proved to be a valuable, if ruthless, asset. As he ascended the ranks of Panama's military, ultimately becoming its de facto ruler in 1983, his usefulness to Washington grew. During the height of the Cold War, he provided intelligence on leftist movements in Latin America, assisted US counter-intelligence efforts, and allowed the US to establish listening posts in Panama. For his services, he received a handsome reward, with reports indicating payments ranging from $100,000 to over $200,000 per year from the CIA and U.S. Army intelligence.
An Alliance of Convenience Sours
While Noriega was cashing checks from the United States, he was building a criminal empire. He turned Panama into a haven for money laundering and became a key partner for drug smugglers, most notably Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel. For years, the US government turned a blind eye to these activities. Noriega was considered a crucial, if unsavory, ally in a volatile region, particularly for his role in supporting the Contras against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. However, by the mid-1980s, the alliance had become untenable. His corruption grew too brazen, his human rights abuses too public, and his double-dealing—providing intelligence to Cuba while working for the US—became an open secret. In 1988, federal grand juries in Miami and Tampa indicted him on charges of racketeering, drug smuggling, and money laundering. The asset had officially become a liability.
From Payroll to Public Enemy Number One
The final straw came after the May 1989 Panamanian presidential election. When the opposition candidate won a clear victory, Noriega brazenly nullified the results and unleashed his paramilitary forces on the winners in broad daylight. The relationship was irrevocably broken. President George H.W. Bush, who had been Director of the CIA during part of Noriega’s time as an asset, authorized the invasion. In his address to the nation, he laid out the mission's objectives:
He is charged with drug trafficking. And we want to bring him to justice. We want to restore the democratic process. We want to make sure that the Panama Canal, and we have a treaty obligation, remains secure. And we want to ensure the protection of American life and property.
After days of intense fighting, Noriega took refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See in Panama City. In a now-infamous psychological operation, U.S. forces surrounded the embassy and blasted rock music, including songs like Van Halen's "Panama" and The Clash's "I Fought the Law," until he surrendered on January 3, 1990. The man the CIA had cultivated for decades was flown to Miami in chains, a stark symbol of how quickly an ally of convenience can become an enemy of the state. The Noriega affair remains a cautionary tale of Cold War realpolitik, where the lines between asset and adversary were dangerously, and ultimately, disastrously blurred.