PANAMA CITY — Nearly 22 years ago, a U.S. military plane whisked the de facto leader of this nation, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, off to Florida to face trial, and ultimately a prison sentence, for drug trafficking.
On Sunday evening, a commercial airliner landed here with much less fanfare, carrying him back. After a flight of more than 15 hours from Paris, where he had served additional time for money laundering, Noriega arrived at Renacer Prison, a former U.S. facility, to complete a 20-year sentence for three murders here and await possible further judgment in Panama’s courts.
Noriega, 77, was kept from public view after landing, adding to many Panamanians’ sense of him as a cipher. Even longtime opponents concede that public rancor has faded, although many who lost loved ones or were tortured under the Noriega dictatorship, from 1983 to 1989, said they would fight for him to face additional trials here and demand his accomplices pay too.
The New York Times
