sion occurred in and around the capital, Panama
City. Quickly, the U.S. forces involved in the opera-
tion moved to secure the Punta Paitilla Airport, an-
other airfield at Rio Hato, and the central headquar-
ters of the Panamanian Defense Force, know as La
Comandancia. The fight that occurred while secur-
ing these sites caused fires throughout Panama City
that destroyed some heavily populated sections of
the city, leaving many civilians homeless.
It took several days for military operations to
come to an end. While the Panamanian Defense
Forces very quickly collapsed, many individual Nori-
ega loyalists continued the fight. Also, because of the
breakdown of the Panamanian government and the
fires sweeping parts of the city, lawlessness broke out,
and there was a great deal of looting and vandalism
that needed to be contained.
The Hunt for Noriega While U.S. forces did secure
the capital, they failed to capture Noriega. The dicta-
tor had been able to avoid capture by the United
States, but with military forces trying to track him
down and a one-million-dollar reward being offered
for his capture, he was running out of options.
Finally, he sought refuge in the Vatican embassy in
Panama City, hoping to seek asylum from the Vati-
can or another country that might take him in. The
United States had no intention of letting Noriega
slip through its fingers. He and his drug trafficking
ties were the main reasons for the invasion. The
Army therefore began a vigil outside the Vatican
embassy that soon became a media spectacle. The
Americans demanded that Noriega surrender, and
to keep the pressure up, they blared loud rock music
from specially equipped trucks parked outside the
embassy day and night. The U.S. government also
put a great deal of diplomatic pressure on the Vati-
can to turn over Noriega. Noriega realized that he
had run out of options, and he finally surrendered,
turning himself over to U.S. forces on January 3,
- He was immediately removed from Panama
and brought to the United States to stand trial on a
variety of drug-related charges.
Impact The United States achieved all of its goals
during Operation Just Cause. U.S. soldiers removed
Noriega as a cog in drug trafficking operations in
Latin America, restored democracy in Panama, and
protected American interests in the area. The inva-
sion, however, did nothing to help the U.S. reputa-
tion in the region, as many Latin American coun-
tries saw the action as one more example in a long
history of U.S. interference and domination. The al-
most two-week-long spree of looting and vandalism
that the United States allowed to continue contrib-
uted to this negative reaction among the nations of
Central and South America. The invasion thus fur-
ther soured already fraught diplomatic relations be-
tween the United States and many Latin American
countries.Subsequent Events Manuel Noriega was convicted
of drug trafficking and related offenses in 1992. He
was sentenced to forty years imprisonment (later re-
duced to thirty) and sent to a U.S. federal prison in
Miami, Florida, to serve out his sentence.Further Reading
Albert, Steve.The Case Against the General: Manuel
Noriega and the Politics of American Justice.New
York: Scribner, 1993. Fascinating look at the ins
and outs of the case against Noriega that formed
the basis for the United States’ invasion of Pan-
ama; gives readers an inside look at the process
leading to war.
Gilboa, Eytan. “The Panama Invasion Revisited: Les-
sons for the Use of Force in the Post Cold War
Era.”Political Science Quarterly110 (Winter, 1995-
1996): 539-562. Overview of the effects of using
military force to achieve foreign policy goals. Al-
lows readers to see both sides to the use of force in
Panama.
Musicant, Ivan.The Banana Wars: A Histor y of United
States Militar y Intervention in Latin America from the
Spanish-American War to the Invasion of Panama.
New York: Macmillan, 1990. Outlines all of the in-
terventions of the U.S. military in Latin America,
giving the historical background to the invasion
of Panama.
Michael S. FrawleySee also Bush, George H. W.; Foreign policy of the
United States; Iran-Contra affair; Latin America.The Eighties in America Panama invasion 747