On August 12, 1987, NPanama by declaring that the aim of Washington and its Panamanian minions was "to smashoriega responded to the opposition campaigns fomented by the US inside
Panama as a free and independent nation. It is a repetition of what Teddy Roosevelt did when he
militarily attacked following the separation of Panama from Colombia." On August 13, 1987, the
Los Angeles Times reported that US Assistant Attorney General Stephen Trott, who had headed up
the Department of Justice "Get Noriega" Task Force for more than a year, had sent out orders to"pull together everything that we have on him [Noriega] in order to see if he is prosecutable." This (^)
classic "enemies' list" operation was clearly aimed at fabricating drug charges against Noriega,
since that was the political spin which the US regime wished to impart to its attack on Panama. In
February, 1988, Noriega was indicted on US drugs charges, despite a lack of evidence and an even
more compelling lack of jurisdiction. This indictment was quickly followed by economic sanctions,an embargo on trade, and other economic warfare measures that were invoked by Washington on
March 2, 1988. All of these measures were timed to coincide with the "Super Tuesday" presidential
preference primaries in the southern states, where Bush was able to benefit from the racist appeal of
the assault on Noriega, who is of mestizo background and has a swarthy complexion.
During the spring of 1988, the Reagan Administration conducted a negotiation with Noriega with
the declared aim of convincing him to relinquish power in exchange for having the drug charges
against him dropped. In May, Michael G. Kozak, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for Inter-
American affairs had been sent to Panama to meet with Noriega. Bush had come under attack from
other presidential candidates, especially Dukakis, for being soft on Noriega and seeking a pleabargain with the Panamanian leader. Bush first took the floor during the course of an administration (^)
policymaking meeting to advocate an end of the bargaining with Noriega. According to press
reports, this proposal was "hotly contested." Then, in a speech in Los Angeles, Bush made one of
his exceedingly rare departures from the Reagan line by announcing with a straight face that a Bush
Administration would not "bargain with drug dealers" at home or abroad. [fn 41]
Bush's interest in Noriega continued after he had assumed the presidency. On April 6, 1989, Bush
formally declared that the government of Panama represented an "unusual and extraordinary threat"
to US national security and foreign policy. He invoked the National Emergencies Act and the
International Emergency Act to declare a state of "national emergency" in this country to meet themenace allegedly posed by the nationalists of little Panama. The May 1, 1989 issue of US News and (^)
World Report revealed that Bush had authorized the expenditure of $10 million in CIA funds for
operations against the Panamanian government. These funds were obviously to be employed to
influence the Panamanian elections, which were scheduled for early May. The money was delivered
to Panama by CIA1989 on charges of drug t bagman Carlos Eleta Almaran, who had just been arrested in Georgia in April,rafficking. On May 2, with one eye on those elections, Bush attempted to (^)
refurbush his wimp image with a blustering tirade delivered to the Rockefeller-controlled Council
of the Americas in which he stated: "Let me say one thing clearly. The USA will not accept the
results of fraudulent elections that serve to keep the supreme commander of the Panamanian armed
forces in power." This made clear that Bush intended to declare the elections undemocratic if thepro-Noriega candidates were not defeated.
In the elections of May 7, the CIA's $10 million and other monies were used to finance an extensive
covert operation which aimed at stealing the elections. The US-supported Civic Democratic
Alliance, whose candidate was Guillermo Endara, purchased votes, bribed the election officials, andfinally physically absconded with the official vote tallies. Because of the massive pattern of fraud
and irregularities, the Panamanian government annulled the election. Somewhere along the line the
usual US-staged "people power" upsurge had failed to materialize. The inability of Bush to force
through a victory by the anti-Noriega opposition was a first moment of humiliation for the would-be
Rough Rider.