All language subtitles for Secret.Wars.Uncovered.S02E09.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_Subtitles01_Unnamed

NARRATOR:
May the 29th, 2017.

Panama City.

Former dictator Manuel Antonio
Noriega dies aged 83.

A ruthless dictator
who amassed a personal fortune

through drug trafficking
and money laundering,

his capture by the US
27 years earlier

had marked a turning point
in Panamanian history.

On December the 20th, 1989,

troops sent by
President George H.W. Bush

entered Panama to arrest Noriega
and remove him forcibly from power.

- The American invasion
was so carefully constructed

by the United States

to put the best gloss
on what was happening

and to make sure that George Bush
came out of it looking well.

NARRATOR: But relations between
Noriega and the United States

had not always been so hostile.

Indeed, at one stage,

Noriega had been one of the CIA's
most important intelligence assets

in Central America.

- The CIA had an interest in knowing
what was going on in Panama

and Noriega became our inside
person in the government.

He was totally undemocratic.

And we, the United States,
supported him

because he was a convenience for us.

NARRATOR:
Despite his illegal activities,

Noriega was useful to the US
for decades.

- Noriega turned Panama
into a launching pad

for cocaine imports and smuggling
into the United States.

But the Reagan administration
and CIA officials at this time

were willing to look past this,

knowing that Noriega was still their
man and an ardent anti-communist.

NARRATOR: Why did the United States
invade Panama

to capture a former CIA asset?

What were the hidden interests
behind this invasion

that went far beyond the restoration
of democracy and the rule of law?

(crowd chants in Spanish)

(theme music)

NARRATOR: The dream
of linking the Atlantic Ocean

with the Pacific Ocean
through Central America

was born as early as
the Spanish colonial era

of the Sixteenth Century.

But it was not until the advances
of the Industrial Revolution

in the 19th century

that the construction of
an interoceanic canal

became a realistic possibility.

By the end of the 19th century,

Panama was part of Colombia,
having broken away from Spain.

The great powers of the time,

Great Britain, France and the United
States

were jostling for position
to dominate world trade,

and they began to pressure
the Colombian government

to authorize the construction
of the Panama Canal.

In 1880,
Colombia granted the concession

to the Frenchman
Ferdinand de Lesseps,

who had just completed
the Suez Canal in Egypt.

But the project faced
multiple obstacles

and ended up in the hands
of Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla

who, to protect French investment,

began to sell shares in the canal
to the United States.

- Bunau-Varilla went to Washington

and he lobbied hard for the US
to take over the canal project.

He lobbied businessmen
and politicians.

He also encouraged
an independence movement in Panama.

NARRATOR: In 1903, the United States
signed a treaty with Colombia

to build the canal.

But when it was rejected
by the Colombian Parliament,

they pushed for
Panamanian Independence

and a government
they could do business with.

- Theodore Roosevelt
wanted to do that

in order to be able to build
a canal in Panama

and Colombia
was resisting doing that.

And so he gets the Panamanians
to declare independence,

then negotiates with the Panamanians
a great deal

for a canal to be put
right in the middle of the country.

NARRATOR:
On November the 3rd, 1903,

with the United States Navy
stationed just off its coastline,

Panama declared its independence.

Days later, on November the 18th,

US Secretary of State John Milton
Hay and Philippe Bunau-Varilla,

signed an agreement in Washington
which allowed the Americans

to begin the construction
of the Panama Canal.

- Bunau-Varilla went ahead
and signed a Panama Canal treaty

without consulting
the Panamanian government.

And this treaty turned Panama
into a virtual colony,

it gave the United States
total control over a 10-mile strip,

cutting the country in half.

And the Panamanian
government were outraged.

But by the time their negotiators
arrived in Washington,

the treaty had already been signed
and they couldn't reject it

because they needed
the support of the United States

to protect their
newly independent country.

NARRATOR:
The Treaty gave the United States

the rights to administer and
defend the canal in perpetuity,

in effect enabling the United States

to exert its will over the
Panamanian government and people.

- This treaty was a source of great
nationalist indignation in Panama

for many, many years to come.

- Imagine your country
split in half

with another country's territory
right in the middle of it.

And Panamanians
didn't much appreciate this.

But nonetheless, the United States
is a powerful country.

NARRATOR: The Panama Canal
was completed in 1914,

and from then on,
it revolutionised world trade.

The United States exercised its
sovereignty in the Canal Zone

by directly appointing
the governor of the area.

English was the dominant languag
e in that zone,

and thousands of American civilians
were employed to maintain the canal.

But the Canal Zone had more than
just commercial interest

for the United States.

- The Panama Canal Zone

was also vitally military,
strategically important

for the United States as well.

They'd cited hundreds and then
later, thousands of US troops

in the Panama Canal Zone.

It became the size of the most
important US military base

in Latin America.

NARRATOR: In 1946,

the United States opened the School
of the Americas in the region.

This was a military academy

specialising in training
Latin American soldiers

to fight insurgent groups,

in particular, those of a Marxist
or Leftist persuasion.

- Fairly recently,
the US Department of Defence

declassified the manuals that they
used in the School of Americas.

These showed that
they trained Latin American officers

in the use of fear,
extrajudicial executions,

in false imprisonment, in beatings.

So, the School of Americas
had this notorious reputation

as a
school of dictators.

Many people in Panama
didn't want it in their country,

you know, it was a source of
great indignation and outrage.

NARRATOR:
In the following decades,

resentment of the US presence
in the region became ever stronger.

- Panamanian governments
throughout the 20th century

were always
in a kind of difficult position

because they had this agreement
with the United States.

But they also didn't really have
complete independence

and there was
a very, very big military presence.

And by the 60s and 70s,

there's more than 30,000 Americans
of various types,

including many American troops
in a base called Quarry Heights.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: By the 1960s, Panamanians
became increasingly frustrated

with the privileges that the
American inhabitants were afforded

in the Canal Zone,

and protests
to regain control of their territory

started to gain momentum.

This culminated in
the election of a new President

in favour of severing ties
with the United States,

Arnulfo Arias Madrid.

NARRATOR:
On October the 11th, 1968, however,

a group of National Guard officers
overthrew the incoming President

and instead installed
a pro-US military Junta

that instituted press censorship,

suspended constitutional guarantees,
and dissolved the National Assembly.

NARRATOR:
General Omar Torrijos Herrera,

a graduate of
the School of the Americas,

emerged as the leader
of the new military junta.

Torrijos and his military
intelligence chief,

Lieutenant Colonel Manuel
Antonio Noriega, were ruthless

in their brutal suppression
of any opposition groups.

Noriega was already
building a fearsome reputation.

- Noriega
was well-known to the Americans.

Noriega made his way up
through the Panamanian military

and was
the chief intelligence officer

working very closely
with the CIA.

Panama was often
a place that countries, like Cuba,

set up front agencies
to get around the US embargo.

Panama was a location for
a lot of drug money.

And so, the CIA had an interest in
knowing what was going on in Panama,

and Noriega became our inside person
in the government.

NARRATOR:
As head of military intelligence,

Noriega strengthened his
relationship with the CIA

and helped cement Torrijos'
leadership in Panama

during the 1970s.

A decade later, with the sudden
death of Torrijos in 1981,

Noriega was pushed to the front
and centre of the leadership cadre.

Rumours persisted

that he had himself conspired
in Torrijos' death.

Whatever the truth,
Noriega was now Panama's main man,

and he had US backing.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: In the 1970s, Panamanian
dictator Omar Torrijos Herrera

carried out a series of major
public works in Panama,

plunging the nation
into a huge economic crisis.

In an attempt to save the nation
from catastrophe,

Torrijos turned
towards the Panama Canal.

NARRATOR: Torrijos launched
an international campaign

to rally support for new commercial
agreements over access to the canal.

This was received poorly
in Washington,

particularly by senior members of
the Nixon and Ford administrations

and the then Governor of California,
Ronald Reagan.

- The people who own the canal
should say to our government,

"Look, tell Mr Torrijos

"that we built that thing,
we bought the place, we paid for it,

and we intend to keep it
from here on out."

(audience applause)

NARRATOR: But the arrival of
Democrat Jimmy Carter

to the presidency in January 1977
meant a change in US foreign policy

and the reopening of negotiations
with Panama.

After lengthy negotiations,

the Torrijos-Carter agreements
were signed in September 1977,

according to which
US control of the canal

would end at midnight
on December the 31st, 1999.

- We now have a partnership
with Panama

to maintain and to operate
and to defend the canal.

We have the clear right to take
whatever action is necessary

to defend the canal and to keep it
open and neutral and accessible.

We do not have the right

to interfere
in Panama's internal affairs.

NARRATOR: In addition,

in the negotiation of
the Torrijos-Carter Treaties,

an agreement was reached

for gradual democratization
of the country

that would allow for the
legalisation of political parties,

freedom of the press and free and
fair presidential elections in 1984.

It looked as though
the US and Panamanians

had finally reached a deal
that benefitted both sides.

However, the sudden death
of Omar Torrijos in a plane crash

on July the 31st, 1981,

put the future of the agreements
on indefinite hold.

Torrijos' death was mired in
rumour and speculation.

Many claimed the accident was
in fact an assassination by the CIA

in cahoots with Torrijos' right-hand
man and intelligence chief:

Manuel Antonio Noriega.

- There are
so many different stories.

One is that
the CIA wanted to get rid of him.

Others believe that
Noriega himself got rid of him.

But it's actually quite possible
in this case,

that he just died in a plane crash
and Noriega took over

because he was the person
who commanded considerable support

among the rank and file within
the Panamanian Defence Forces.

NARRATOR: Whatever the truth,

Torrijos' death
significantly destabilized

the Panamanian government

and jeopardized the recently
concluded Torrijos-Carter accords.

And in the subsequent elections,

there was only one serious contender
to take power.

In August 1983, Noriega assumed
the position of Commander-in-Chief

of the Panamanian National Guard,

which he transformed into
the Panamanian Defence Forces,

thus making himself
the country's undisputed leader.

From that point on,

despite never becoming
Panama's president,

Noriega was able to exercise
an extraordinary amount of power.

NARRATOR: In those years,

the United States
was primarily concerned

with Cuba's growing influence
in the region

and the ascendancy
of other leftist groups

such as the FMLN Marxist guerrillas
in El Salvador

and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

Amid the Marxist regimes
in the region,

Noriega became an even more
important ally to Washington.

- He was a CIA asset,

including at the time
that George H. W. Bush was director

of the Central Intelligence Agency
in 1976-1977.

And that relationship
became increasingly important

as a result of communist uprisings

or left-wing uprisings
in Latin America

particularly in Nicaragua.

- The Reagan administration
believed in the domino theory.

It feared that if there'd been
a revolution in one country,

then there might be a revolution in
another and another and another,

and it was determined
to stop that happening.

The Reagan administration,
created, funded, trained and armed

a force of counter-revolutionary
mercenaries known as the Contras.

And these contras would wage
a war of terror in Nicaragua

to try to undermine
support for the revolution.

NARRATOR: Although Noriega supported
US counter-insurgent operations

and the US anti-communist struggle
in Central America,

his loyalty was highly questionable.

- Every month
he received a stipend from the CIA.

But he was also
being paid by other countries.

The Soviet Union and Cuba used him.

That was one of the reasons
we actually found him useful:

he was a triple agent.

And we learned things about Cuba
and the Soviet Union from him.

- Noriega was also playing
a number of different games.

One of them was
he was a confidante of the CIA.

He was also helping out the DEA,
the Drug Enforcement Agency,

and he was also taking backhanders
from drug dealers.

NARRATOR: Noriega had close ties
to Colombian drug cartels

that used Panama as a base for
trafficking and money laundering.

And some of those ill-gotten gains
were channelled into

the US-backed Central American
counter-guerrilla groups.

- Noriega turned Panama
into a launching pad

for cocaine imports and smuggling
into the United States.

But the Reagan administration
and CIA officials at this time

were willing to look past this,

knowing that
Noriega was still their man

and an ardent anti-communist.

- He was totally undemocratic.

And we, the United States,
supported him

because
he was a convenience for us.

NARRATOR: As the May 1984
elections approached,

opposition to Noriega was growing.

Two leading candidates emerged

as the front runners
in the presidential race:

Arnulfo Arias Madrid

against Noriega's favoured candidate
Nicolas Ardito Barletta.

Due to Noriega's influence
and widespread electoral fraud,

Barletta was declared victorious.

NARRATOR: The following year,

the opposition leader
Hugo Spadafora,

who had accused Noriega
of corruption, was assassinated.

NARRATOR:
Spadafora's assassination

would be the first real tarnishing
of Noriega's international image.

But his relations
with the United States

would not deteriorate fully
until a scandal emerged

that would engulf
Ronald Reagan's administration:

the Iran-Contra Affair.

- US officials sold arms
to the Iranian regime.

That broke an embargo, the US
embargo on arms sales to Iran,

and they used those funds
from selling arms to Iran,

they funnelled those to the Contras

to fund their counter-revolutionary
war in Nicaragua,

which violated
the US Congress's decision

to cut off aid to the Contras.

So it was completely illegal

and Manuel Noriega was a key figure
in the Iran-Contra affair.

NARRATOR: The Iran-Contra scandal
of the mid-1980s

exposed the CIA's connections with
its main man in Central America,

Manuel Noriega.

And once this relationship
was revealed,

and with it the eye-watering sums
paid to Noriega by the CIA,

it emboldened his enemies
at home and abroad.

- The United States knew that
Manuel Noriega had been involved in

drugs trafficking, in gun running,
in money laundering;

but they turned a blind eye to that

because he was
a key intelligence asset for the CIA

and he became a key figure
in the Iran-Contra war.

But the Iran-Contra affair was also
the beginning of his downfall.

NARRATOR: In June 1987,
Colonel Roberto Diaz Herrera,

former second in command
of the Panamanian Defence Forces,

accused Noriega
of a number of illegalities

including drug trafficking,

the assassinations of Hugo Spadafora
and Omar Torrijos,

and electoral fraud.

NARRATOR: In February 1988,

in an attempt to crack down on
illegal activities

linked to the Iran-Contra scandal,

Noriega was charged
by the United States

with drug trafficking
and organised crime.

The Reagan administration
imposed sanctions on Panama,

including the elimination of
preferential trade

and
the withholding of canal tariffs.

We will continue to push

to see that Mr Noriega
gets out of Panama. He should leave.

NARRATOR: George H. W. Bush had been
an old acquaintance of Noriega's

from his days as Director
of Central Intelligence,

and his arrival in the White House

would make things far worse
for the dictator.

- As George H. W. Bush
sought to move US foreign policy

into the new realms of
what he dubbed a new world order,

a post-Cold War system

that would be based upon
international laws, cooperation,

and would see the United States
as the enforcer of those laws,

the world's policemen,

these links back to shady dealings,

illegal operations,
sanction breaking

and the sponsorship of
what essentially were death squads

simply was unacceptable
at this point.

Noriega was too connected

to what had become seen as
toxic American foreign policy.

George H. W. Bush's own connection
to those policies,

both as a former CIA director

and as the vice president during
the time of the Iran-Contra scandal,

meant that he simply knew too much

and Noriega had to be removed.

- I will protect the lives of
Americans in Panama,

whether they're military
or civilian.

We will not let American's lives
be put at risk

by a dictator down there.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: The countdown to
the American invasion of Panama

had begun.

(theme music)

NARRATOR:
By the late 1980s,

in the wake of
the Iran-Contra scandal,

Noriega's regime had become
more ruthless and oppressive

in his desperate attempt
to cling onto power.

During this time he created
the brutal "Battalions of Dignity",

a paramilitary civilian militia

trained by
the Panamanian Defence Forces

to terrorize and
repress resistance to his regime.

In May 1989,
general elections were held,

in which parties opposed to
Noriega's regime won by a landslide.

Noriega dismissed the results,

claiming that they'd been
rigged by US interference.

(gunshots)

NARRATOR: He brutally repressed
opposition supporters

and appointed Francisco Rodriguez,

one of his aides,
as interim president.

- Let me be clear.

The United States will not recognise

the results of a fraudulent,
fraudulent election

engineered
simply to keep Noriega in power.

NARRATOR:
In October of that year,

a coup led by
Lieutenant Colonel Moises Giroldi

succeeded in capturing Noriega.

But the rebel group

underestimated the power
that Noriega still wielded.

- Noriega somehow,
goodness knows how,

managed to get a phone call
out of where he was being held,

called in for reinforcements

and his Panamanian Defence Force
loyalists

rounded up the coup plotters,
there's about a dozen of them,

and they were all executed.

NARRATOR: The rebels were captured,
tortured and executed

in what became known as
the Albrook Massacre.

The US had the opportunity
to support Giroldi

but they had abandoned him
to his fate.

NARRATOR:
On December the 15th, 1989,

the Panamanian Legislative Assembly

appointed Noriega
as Chief of the War Cabinet.

They then declared Panama in a state
of war with the United States

due to America's interference
in Panama's internal affairs.

The next day,
the actions of a few soldiers

would change
the course of Panamanian history.

(dramatic music)

- There was a very unpleasant
incident in December 1989,

which involved at least four
American service personnel.

They were stopped by
Panamanian Defence Forces.

It's not entirely clear
what happened, whatever happened,

one of them was shot dead
by Panamanian forces

and another was also shocked.

So
Bush was at the end of his tether,

there was political pressure on him
to do something.

Panama was going really badly.

He knew that Noriega was unpopular,
then you had American lives at risk.

So Bush decided it was time to act.

NARRATOR:
The US response was swift.

The following day,
Bush ordered Operation Just Cause,

commanded by US Chief of Staff
Colin Powell,

to invade Panama
and capture Noriega.

- 25,000 American troops
were sent to Panama

to overthrow the much smaller
Panamanian military force.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: President Bush's
justification for the invasion

was that it would
protect American lives

and property in the Canal Zone,

and restore Panamanian freedom
from the brutal regime

that had oppressed its people
for so many years.

- He decided to send
2,000 US paratroops

in the first big paratroop jump
since World War Two

of American service personnel.

They were going to go into Panama,
they were going to seize Noriega,

arrest him, and essentially
bring about regime change.

NARRATOR: In the early hours of
December 20, 1989, the attack began

with a bombing of the Panama
Defence Forces headquarters

in the El Chorrillo neighbourhood,
which was razed to the ground.

- The Chorrillo district was...
part of it was levelled

Because of the heat
there was a pretty awful smell

because there were bodies
under the rubble.

I don't know whose bodies,
perhaps civilians,

perhaps military personnel.

NARRATOR: On the first day
of the invasion, Guillermo Endara,

who had won the elections
annulled by Noriega in May,

was sworn in as head of
Panama's new government

at a US military base.

US forces quickly overpowered
the organised resistance

but were unable to capture Noriega,

who had taken refuge
in the Vatican nunciature.

He's running for his life

and he has to ask for other people's
protection. He's finished.

- I hope that in the next few days
he will be retrieved.

He has no right to be there,
he's a common criminal.

NARRATOR:
In the days that followed,

violent lootings spread across
Panama City and Colon.

On December the 22nd,

The Organization of American States
publicly condemned the invasion

and called for
the withdrawal of US troops.

On the 29th of December,

the UN General Assembly
voted 75 to 20, with 40 abstentions,

to condemn the invasion

as a flagrant violation
of international law.

But this was of little concern
to the United States.

- The invasion itself
was criticised by the United Nations

as a breach of Article two:

an illegal use of war
to overthrow another government.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Noriega remained holed up

in the papal nunciature.

To force him to surrender,

the US military launched
Operation Nifty Package,

using psychological warfare tactics
to force the dictator to surrender.

This included the playing of
heavy rock music,

24 hours a day,
through massive speakers

directly in front of
Noriega's refuge.

The real fighting was over
in four or five days.

And by this time...

life started to come back
to Panama City.

I managed to get into a hotel

which was right next to
the Vatican embassy.

Anway, one morning,
early one morning,

I was woken up by

I think it was David Bowie
but it might have been The Clash.

I mean,
it was very, very loud music -

really, really loud music.

NARRATOR: The Pentagon story,
which they put out

to the journalists in Washington,

was that it was
psychological warfare.

The version I heard on the ground,

from the people who put up
the speakers,

was nothing to do with that.

It was that General Thurman,
Maxwell Thurman,

the commander
of the American forces,

was paranoid that the media,

whom he knew were in the hotel that
overlooked the papal nunciature,

had parabolic microphones and we
could listen in to his conversations

with the papal legation,

the Vatican Ambassador
about getting Noriega.

NARRATOR: Either way,
after days of blaring music,

Noriega turned himself in
to the US military

on January the 3rd, 1990.

The next day,
he was transferred to Miami

where he was detained
to await trial.

Thus ended the most sinister era
in Panama's history,

which the United States

had first enabled through its
financial support of Noriega,

and then brought to an abrupt and
ignominious end

when Noriega became a liability.

Operation Just Cause
had fulfilled its objectives.

- Today, democracy is restored.
Panama is free.

NARRATOR:
For George H. W. Bush,

the invasion of Panama
and the capture of Noriega

were his first great
personal victories

as president
of the United States.

- The invasion of Panama did a lot
for George Bush, personally.

He suddenly had
80% approval ratings.

He had not been nowhere near that
since the start of his presidency.

The second thing it did, and this is
by far the most important,

was it showed that
to the American public,

America was in a sense back,
it emboldened the United States,

it suggested that the United States

was willing to intervene militarily
in other countries.

NARRATOR: Hundreds were wounded
on both sides of the conflict

and tens of thousands of residents

of the El Chorrillo neighbourhood
were displaced.

To this day

it is unclear how many people
lost their lives in the invasion.

- The exact scale and casualties of
this war are contested to this day

with the Americans
claiming that figures were

somewhere between 100 and 150,

but various truth commissions
across Latin America

are putting the casualties
as high as 3,000.

NARRATOR:
Operation Just Cause

was the last US military incursion
into Latin America.

It was also the debut of a new
interventionist US foreign policy

and served as a test bed for new
warfare doctrine and technologies.

- The war also served as
a first test run

of Colin Powell's doctrine
of massive force,

learning from the lessons
of gradual escalation in Vietnam

to instead deploy American forces
in massive numbers

to rapidly overwhelm the opponents.

And importantly, this model would
then come to be seen two years later

in the Gulf War

as the primary way of employing
American military force.

NARRATOR:
Through constitutional reforms,

Guillermo Endara's government

abolished
the Panamanian Defence Forces

and,
with the help of the United States,

the new Panamanian military
was formed.

A brighter future seemed to be on
the horizon for Panama...

but the US occupation
of its territory

and total US control of the canal

still cast a shadow
over the country.

(dramatic music)

(theme music)

(theme music)

NARRATOR:
On December the 31st, 1999,

as stipulated in
the Torrijos-Carter Treaty,

US military presence
on Panamanian soil ceased

and Panama finally
took control over its canal.

NARRATOR: The recovery of Panamanian
sovereignty over the canal,

however, did not mean the end of US
influence.

The 1977 Torrijos-Carter treaty

had upheld the right of the United
States to intervene militarily

if they felt the security
of the canal was threatened.

NARRATOR: On February the 5th, 2002,

the Salas-Becker
Supplemental Agreement

to the Torrijos-Carter treaty

secured cooperation between
the United States and Panama

in the fight against
drug trafficking.

But cooperation
between the two nations

goes farther than the treaty.

In military terms, US support
for the Panamanian Armed Forces

has been fundamental
to its defence capabilities.

Economically,

the United States remains
Panama's largest trading partner.

And since Panama took control of
the administration of the canal,

its economy has improved
exponentially

and international trade ties
have flourished.

Between 2017 and 2018,

25 agreements were signed
between Panama and China,

11 of them
on economic and trade issues.

Panama's close relationship with the
two largest economies in the world

has provided economic growth
and stability.

Today, more than 30 years
after the US invasion of Panama,

the fortunes of the Central American
country have changed dramatically.

- Probably the most important thing
is that...

Panama leads Latin America
in terms of economic growth,

its economy
was fundamentally transformed.

Panama has become, you know,
a very, very significant country

in terms of its development model.

Panama has largely achieved
a very significant status

in terms of that economic stability
and growth.

At the same time, however,

Panama got rid of
Manuel Antonio Noriega

and attained
the status of a democracy

with a very peaceful succession
of leaders and the like.

NARRATOR: While democratic
governments of different stripes

have succeeded one another
and the economy has flourished,

the notorious Panamanian dictator
and corrupt triple-agent,

Manuel Noriega, spent his final days
behind bars in the United States.

In April 1992, in Miami,

Noriega was convicted of
eight of the ten drug trafficking

and money laundering charges
against him.

And in July of that same year,
aged 58,

he was sentenced to 40 years
in prison in the United States.

NARRATOR: In 2010, after 20 years
in prison in the United States,

he was extradited to France

to serve a new 10-year sentence
for money laundering.

NARRATOR:
And then a year later, in 2011,

Noriega was extradited
back to Panama,

where he had previously been
sentenced to 20 years in 1995

for his role in the assassination of
opposition leader Hugo Spadafora.

By February 2017,

having spent nearly 30 years
in prison in 3 different countries,

Manuel Noriega was a shadow
of the once strongman of Panama.

Now 83 years old and suffering from
terminal cancer of the brain,

he was granted house arrest
for three months

at one of his daughter's homes
in Panama to receive treatment.

On May the 29th, 2017,

after spending three months
in an induced coma,

former Panamanian dictator
Manuel Antonio Noriega died.

His demise marked the end of
a dark era

of corruption and violence

which had blighted the lives of
a generation of Panamanians.

His rise and fall at the hands of
the United States

is a lesson
still being learned today

in the corridors of power in
Washington DC and around the world.

- The United States
political establishment

learned a lot from
the invasion of Panama.

They learned if you win a war
you're a success.

They also learned to get in, change
the government and get out again.

So there was
no long-term commitment.

Of course,
American influence is still there,

but it's kind of business as usual.

And it also meant that
in terms of intervening militarily,

the United States recognized
very clearly

that the media presentation
was extremely important.

And that the media could be used,

but they also had to be
kept in check.

And that has been something that
they've done very well ever since.

(dramatic music)

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