Real Dictators - Manuel Noriega Part 1: The Narco Dictator

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

For two decades, Manuel Noriega stamped his authority on Panama - first as the country’s brutal intelligence chief, and later, from 1983-89, as its de facto military ruler. A gangster up to his neck in drug trafficking, gun running and organised crime. But also, a key asset of the CIA. How did a poor boy from Panama grow up to become such a chameleon on the world stage? And why does so much of the Noriega story remain in the shadows? A Noiser production, written by Duncan Barrett. This is Part 1 of 3. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. It's June the 9th, 1971. Late at night, somewhere deep in rural Panama, Father Hector Gallego, a Roman Catholic priest, is woken from his slumber. As he peers through the gloom, he discerns the gang of men looming over him, and the unmistakable outlines of the guns slung over their shoulders.

Within moments, Gallego is being dragged out of his hut. Within moments, Gallego is being dragged out of his hut. He's hauled through the tropical trees, then across a patch of scrubland to where a helicopter is waiting. Hastily, he's manhandled and sunlit. The chopper rises into the air. Gallego looks up into the faces of his captors. One of them, pockmarked with acne scars, he recognizes at once. It's Panama's intelligence chief, Manuel Noriega.

As the country's spymaster, Noriega has a reputation for brutality. He's less J. Edgar Hoover and more Don Corleone. The armed men accompanying him are soldiers of the National Guard, Panama's military police force. They seized power in a coup three years ago. Since then, Father Gallego has been a thorn in the side of the military junta. His work with the local peasant cooperatives put a target on his back. Stealing a glance out of the window, Gallego sees the twinkling lights of the shoreline below give way to the inky darkness of the ocean. The helicopter is heading out over the Pacific. Suddenly, someone opens the side door of the chopper,

and Gallego gets a blast of cold sea air. Exactly what happens next is unclear, even half a century later. We can't be sure who exactly gives the priest the final shove that sends him down to the sea below. In subsequent years, rumours will swirl as the troublesome priest becomes a folk hero. Somehow it seems he survives his fall from the helicopter. Not only that, but he also actually makes it back to land before finally succumbing

to his injuries. Whatever the truth, in the coming days the US Army Southern Command receives an alert on a wiretap placed on Manuel Noriega's personal phone line. They are able to eavesdrop on the

intelligence chief himself as he reflects on the helicopter incident and the headaches that night has since caused him. They listen intently as he jokes with a colleague. The Gallego affair has taught him a valuable lesson,

Norega explains. If you're going to throw a man from a helicopter, be sure to kill him first. For two decades, Manuel Noriega left his indelible mark on Panama, first as the country's brutal intelligence chief, and later as its de facto military ruler. To many, he was the ultimate Central American dictator, a gangster turned autocrat who was

up to his neck in drug trafficking, gun running, and organized crime. But in the Cold War, he was also a key asset of the US intelligence services. He fed his CIA handlers intel on Castro's Cuba, and provided arms to the Contras in Nicaragua. Finally though, Noriega and the Americans parted ways in the mother of all fallings out. And when the CIA cut him loose, Noriega's reputation as a Latin American bogeyman was cemented. How did an impoverished boy from a relatively small country grow up to play such a pivotal role in global affairs? Why does so much of the Noriega story remain in the shadows? And how much of what really happened on his watch can we unveil?

From Noisa, this is part one of the Noriega story. And this is Real Dictators. Getting to grips with the Noriega story means engaging with a complex web of contradictory narratives, political spin, and outright lies. Undoubtedly, Noriega was guilty of a great many crimes. Among them it's pretty safe to say rape and murder, though, like Al Capone before him, it was lesser charges—drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering—that ultimately brought him down. Experts continue to debate where exactly Noriega sits in the pantheon of dictators.

Michael Conniff is Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University and the author of multiple books on Panama. Noriega was very definitely a dictator in the worst sense. Atrocities, human rights violations, torture, things of that sort. Noriega was definitely not an attractive figure. Martha Duncan worked as a Panama analyst in the U.S. intelligence services. I would not characterize Noriega on the spectrum of a Hitler. Hitler did mass killings in plain view. Noriega did it in

secret. And it wasn't mass. So I would probably categorize him more along the spectrum of a gangster, a thug. There is so much secrecy around Noriega. Basic facts are sometimes very hard to establish. As Panama's top intelligence officer, he was a master of equivocation and misinformation. Pinning anything on him personally is like trying to catch a snake with your bare hands. In fact, even the story about Father Gallego's plunge from the helicopter is disputed. Margaret Scranton is professor of political science at the University of Arkansas and author of The Noriega Years. It's controversial whether or not there was a helicopter. Did he die? That's not in question. He was killed. He was assassinated. Who did it? I honestly do not know.

Noriega himself sneered at the lack of hard evidence proving his involvement in Gallego's murder. In his memoirs, written in prison after his dramatic fall from power, he claims that he was smeared. There were attempts to name me as being involved, but it didn't work, he concludes smugly. But he never says explicitly that he didn't do it. It's just inconclusive. Noriega's involvement is inconclusive. Now that can be because Noriega is a superior chameleon And part of the plan would be a plausible deniability

and being able to distance yourself. I don't think we're ever going to know for sure, but the suspicion is very, very strong. The Gallego mystery just goes to show how much of the Noriega story is a battle between warring versions of the truth. On one side, we have a professional liar and keeper of secrets. And on the other, the combined efforts of the United States Intelligence Services. The man, even according to U.S. intelligence profiles, the man was incredibly intelligent.

And in a very strategic sense, which I think comes from, you know, street smarts. Such a skillful opponent. Angel Ricardo Martinez Benoit is an advisor to the Panamanian government and the author of Manuel Noriega, Prisoner of War. It's very convenient to make Noriega the scapegoat of everything. So everything gets centralized in his image. I'm certain that he did a lot of bad things, but I think the main problem is that there has been a massive effort to kind of take him outside of the context

and just be like, this guy is the devil, when I think it should be analyzed in not only Panama's context, Central America and the whole hemisphere and the whole world. First things first. Panama. It's a thin strip of land linking South and Central America. Today, most people know it as a country with a canal, but for many years, it might more accurately be described as a canal with a country. In the early 1900s, Panama is a province of Colombia.

It has had this status for the best part of a century. Now, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt spots an opportunity. Now, US President Theodore Roosevelt spots an opportunity. He wants to strike an agreement to build an artificial waterway right through the province. A 51 mile long canal connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. But the Colombian Senate has other ideas. Panama came into being in 1903. It had been a province of Colombia throughout much of the 19th century. The United States had written up a treaty with Colombia to build the Panama Canal, and the Colombian Senate denied that treaty. And so Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. president, decided to have Panama declare its independence.

Roosevelt, the US president, decided to have Panama declare its independence. Immediately, the United States signed a treaty with Panama to build the Panama Canal, to maintain it, to defend it, and that went into effect. Even though it was not signed by any Panamanians, it was signed by a Frenchman who represented the interests of the new Panama Canal Company. The 1903 treaty also grants the United States ownership of a strip of land either side of the canal. In total, over 500 square miles of American territory effectively cuts the new nation of Panama in half. The local people must ask permission from the US authorities if they want to cross this canal zone to visit relatives on the other side.

Panamanians would typically say, how would you like 50 miles on either side of the Mississippi River? But for the United States, the canal represents one of its most valuable real estate investments. Robert C. Harding is professor of political science at Valdosta State University in Georgia, United States, and author of The History of Panama. The original reason for the canal was to shorten the distance between the two oceans. Of course, before that, they had to go around South America, around Tierra del Fuego, and it was treacherous. It was expensive.

It was long. So there was certainly an economic component to this, but for Teddy Roosevelt, there was also the strategic military reason. Teddy Roosevelt had famously said that the Caribbean was a quote-unquote American lake, which meant that the United States needed to protect its southern flank. We need to be able to move our forces very rapidly from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice versa. And so the canal is going to service the economic, growing economic needs of the United States, as well as its military strategic needs.

It was critical from the standpoint of the U.S. Navy to have a canal to be able to move warships from the Pacific to the Atlantic and have what authorities called a two ocean Navy without having to have double the number of warships. That in itself made the canal a major strategic asset in terms of global projection of American force. It played a role in World War I, but even a huge role in World War II, since the United States was fighting the war along with its allies in both Europe and the Pacific.

By the time the Cold War takes shape, the United States' foothold in Central America takes on a new strategic significance. Central America takes on a new strategic significance. The Cold War in Central America manifests itself in fear of communism on one level, as well as the potential that if the Cold War ever turned hot, the Panama Canal would be an obvious target for Soviet forces. So the United States never, ever wanted to give any type of control or dominance to the Panamanians. And later, Panama will prove crucial both to drug traffickers funneling their product north and to law enforcement seeking to disrupt the narcotics trade. Throughout the 20th century, Panama will remain an anomaly,

supposedly an independent sovereign country, but effectively a U.S. protectorate. Up until the end of 1999, Panama would exist in this interesting netherworld where they are independent on paper. They have their own government. But at the same time, the currency of Panama is the U.S. dollar. They do not have independent economic policy making decisions.

And on top of that, the United States exercises the ability to intervene when necessary. Manuel Noriega is born in Panama sometime in the mid-1930s. Like so much else about him, his exact date of birth remains a mystery. His father is a well-to-do lawyer. His mother comes from a rather different social class. He was an illegitimate child. The story is his father had had a relation with the family maid, and he was born of that relationship.

So he grew up as a person of mixed racial heritage, partly mestizo, partly European. Certainly not accepted into well-to-do families. The boy spends his early years living with his mother in a rural village called Yaviza, not far from the Colombian border. It's a verdant backwater. Here, the ruins of a 16th century Spanish fort are gradually being swallowed up by the rainforest. His mom was from Darien province, which even to this day is like jungle and one road.

It's an entire province of jungle. You know, coming from the farthest social distance you can be from the elites that had the power. But then, young Manuel's mother gets sick with tuberculosis. She's no longer able to take care of him.

And then, when he was five or six, thereabouts, he was given up for adoption the father was probably not willing to raise the child so he was adopted and grew up in poverty and obviously when do psychoanalysis that was probably not good for his psyche to be given up by his own father. From the director of The Greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who?

Everyone. So, the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. By the age of five, both of Noriega's parents are dead, and he's living with a godmother in a slum in Panama City. Despite the family tragedy, he's able to attend a decent high school, and he distinguishes himself academically. Fellow students describe him as bookish and neatly dressed. But Manuel's teenage years are no walk in the park. He was also picked on as a kid. One of his challenges he faced was he got severe acne and ended up with a very scarred acne face that from then, even later in life, behind his back, people would call him cara de piña, pineapple face.

behind his back, people would call him Cara de Pina, Pineapple Face. Poor and facially scarred, Noriega's prospects are limited. But the young man is determined to claw his way out of the slums. In 1958, after failing to get into medical school, he wins a scholarship to a military academy. It's located 1,500 miles away in Lima, the capital city of Peru. into medical school, he wins a scholarship to a military academy.

It's located 1500 miles away in Lima, the capital city of Peru. He wanted to be a doctor. He couldn't do it. And that's how he ends up going to the military school in Chorrillos in Peru. The military officer class was a way for people from lower middle class origins to climb up the ladder and become more acceptable. And that was Noriega's entree into middle class status as an officer. The education that Noriega receives in Lima will shape not only his career prospects, but his personality as well. This was a military academy whose motto was

beat them into submission and that will make them better soldiers. So that most likely did not positively affect Noriega's demeanor. He would be deferential to the ranks above and abusive to the ranks below.

You know, maybe humiliating people but, you know, maybe even more. At some point during his training in Peru, the young cadet attracts the attention of U.S. intelligence. The CIA would identify potential upcoming stars in Latin America who would give them insights into the organizations that were proximate or important in the fight against global communism. In Noriega's case, he was approached

while he was still in Peru at this military academy. He was, one might say, hired as a CIA asset, He was, one might say, hired as a CIA asset, was brought on to provide information, not only about what was going on at that time in Peru, but later once he joined the National Guard in Panama. And this arrangement was not that unusual within the context of the Cold War. Noriega is the ideal intelligence asset. He has no family loyalties, no political affiliation, and relatively modest career prospects. Already he's developed a reputation for cruelty and sexual violence. In 1960, the cadet is arrested for raping and beating up a local prostitute. But neither the military academy or the CIA sees this as a sackable offense. In spycraft, when they're looking for assets, they're always looking for weaknesses.

Somebody that could be bought, whether it be through money, through the desire for more power, through money, through the desire for more power, to raise their own stature in society. These sort of weaknesses are always, whether it be the CIA, the OKGB, MI6, whomever it is, they're always looking for these people. For Noriega, his weaknesses were legendary, and therefore he was an easy purchase, one might say, for the CIA, because I doubt Noriega really cared if he was being manipulated. All he cared about is he was being paid and the opportunities this brought to him, whether that's power and money, power and women, power and drugs. He really just was looking for any way to bolster his own stature in his own mind, as well as in the view of those around him.

After four years of training in Peru, Noriega returns to Panama. Back home, he's commissioned as a junior officer in the National Guard. Back home he's commissioned as a junior officer in the National Guard This military-cum-police force is paid for in large part by the Americans Its remit is to maintain law and order throughout the country The National Guard has also been known to do a bit of light meddling in the Panamanian political process Ensuring that candidates hostile to the United States don't get elected. It's at the National Guard barracks in Cologne in 1962 where Noriega meets a man who will change the course of his life, a charismatic young major called Omar Torrijos.

Torrijos is a man with a vision for the future of the National Guard, and perhaps even for Panama itself. But to hear Noriega tell it, Torrijos might as well be the dashing hero of a telenovela. He was tall, with a prominent brow and flashing eyes, Noriega recalls, in the memoir written from his prison cell three decades later he seemed to energize the room torrijos too sees something special in noriega he offers the young man a job on the spot taking him on as a kind of protege torrijos was probably already also thinking of building his own power base and you know you have a man like that young just came out of a foreign military Academy good education I guess he said I need this guy

working with me whatever just keep him by my side you never know for second Lieutenant noriega it's the best possible career move under tariho's, Noriega gradually progresses from lieutenant to captain and eventually to major. He's also encouraged to develop his skills in the area of military intelligence. There was, and there still is to this day, a phenomenon that's called patronism. In Spanish they call it patronismo, which simply means that you rise up through your society by helping and being subservient to someone who has power above you in the hopes that they are going to drag you along.

They're going to pull you up as they rise through the ranks as well. He is a pretty mediocre officer until Torrijos starts sending him to intelligence courses in the School of the Americas. That's when he kind of finds his calling. This School of the Americas is located within the Panama Canal zone. It offers specialist training to recruits from all over Latin America. These courses are taught by U.S. Army personnel. Topics include counterinsurgency operations, jungle warfare, intelligence and counterintelligence. Decades later, some of the school's controversial teaching material will be declassified by the Pentagon.

The ensuing scandal will ultimately contribute to the institution being shut down. One CIA interrogation manual used at the school during the 1960s details coercive techniques, including sleep deprivation, starvation, hypnosis, drugs, threats of death, and inflicting physical pain. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all torture chamber. If a coercive technique is to be used, the manual concludes, it should be chosen for its effect upon the individual, and carefully selected to match his personality. As ever, Noriega proves an apt pupil.

Finally, the medical school reject seems to have found his metier. He had a very, very special type of intelligence. He was very analytic, was someone that when you were talking to him, you could feel that he was studying you, you know that when you were talking to him, you could feel that he was studying you, you know, from top to bottom. And you can see that he was paying attention to even the slightest detail, which I think makes sense considering that he was such a talented spy and such a talented intelligence officer.

Noriega was able to do many of the things that Torrijos didn't want to be associated with. In fact, Noriega was called by Torrijos his gangster. He would call him mi gangster because Noriega would do all the dirty work. In many ways, they were polar opposites, but they were also complementary. They helped each other to accomplish their mutual goals. Like the CIA before him, Omar Torrijos sees Noriega as a useful asset. But in cultivating this smart, morally questionable young man, he's helping to create a monster. More than once, he's forced to step in when Noriega's impulsive behavior gets him into trouble.

Militaries have certainly been known for taking advantage of their power, especially power that doesn't have oversight. He did commit rape on a number of occasions, including a 13-year-old girl. But the laws and the culture of that time were not consistent with him being punished for these violations of women. One might say this is part of the good old boys club. People, when they have privileges and are not sanctioned for this kind of behavior, tend to repeat this kind of behavior. And so the military was not going to sanction him. In fact, Torrijos protected him. And so once you're socialized into what you can get away with, the behavior is going to continue. Torrijos and Noriega continue their steady rise through the ranks of the National Guard.

Meanwhile, the political situation in Panama is beginning to heat up. Since the country's inception, a wealthy minority has always held the reins of power. Now, though, a new nationalist movement is beginning to sweep the land, emphasizing the rights of ordinary Panamanians over those of the United States. Their anger finds an obvious target in the Canal Zone, the 500-square-mile U.S.-owned enclave that splits the country right down the middle. The little humiliations of daily life were what mattered. You know, there's a lot of friction. But remember that Panama City is on the wrong side of the canal.

So if you want to go to the countryside, you have to cross the American territory. So all those little things were a daily part of these people's lives. Angel Ricardo Martinez-Benoit remembers visiting the zone as a child with some of his mother's friends. My mom died when I was eight or nine. Since she worked with the Americans in the Canal Zone, she had a lot of friends that were either American or

Panamanians that were married to Americans. And when she was sick or whatever, they would take me and my brother to the actual Canal Zone, to like inside the bases and all that. And it was a different world. It was so different, you know. It was like being in an American movie. These diners and the bowling alleys, like those kind of things. Intelligence analyst Martha Duncan was actually born and raised inside the canal zone, was actually born and raised inside the Canal Zone,

making her a U.S. citizen, but also, crucially, a Zonian, as the 50,000 Americans living here are known. I think a very good way to describe where I grew up, it's paradise, so everything was maintained for you. You had folks that came and cut the grass and painted your houses and took care of your plumbing. We had our own police force, our own fire department. We had two high schools, one on the Pacific, one on the Atlantic. All of our teachers were from various parts of the United States. Our early life was full of sports, team activity, community, beautiful beaches,

and a great landscape. So it was really a marvelous, marvelous place to grow up. But this unlikely slice of Americana hides a darker side as well. It's not just baseball and blueberry muffins that have been introduced to Panama. Early on, many of the administrators and the people who had been sent to work in the Canal Zone were from the South, and they harbored racist beliefs. They even imposed restrictions against Panamanians who worked in the Canal Zone with Jim Crow laws, separate bathrooms, separate facilities across the board. That begins to fade as time goes on, but there still was a two-tier system. This world existed in stark contrast to what many

Panamanians could have. Panamanians that worked in the Canal Zone would come in and say, hey, look at this developed world, why can't we have this? The growing tension is centered on the symbolic question of whose flag gets to fly in the zone. The Panamanian banner or the Stars and Stripes? The National Guard, trained and funded in large part by the United States, are caught right in the middle. Panamanians literally could see into the canal zone and see an American flag flying.

And the question was raised, well, while the United States may run this, this is still supposed to be Panama. So why is there not a Panamanian flag there as well? On May 2nd, 1958, it all kicks off. The trouble starts when a group of students enter the Canal Zone and plant 70 Panamanian flags in the ground. When the local police force attempt to remove them, a riot breaks out. The National Guard are called in to restore order.

In the ensuing violence, nine demonstrators are killed. For many of the National Guardsmen, Panamanians themselves, this is a wake-up call. They vow never again to fire on their fellow citizens. Eighteen months later, a group of high schoolers enter the zone again and run a Panamanian banner up the nearest flagpole. But this time, the National Guard remain in their barracks. It's left to the American police force to disperse them using tear gas. In September 1960, President Eisenhower orders a compromise. Within the Zone, the Panamanian flag will fly alongside the Star-Spangled Banner. But the Zonians refuse to comply, And President Kennedy, elected later that year, is unable to resolve the issue either.

For the Panamanian nationalists, it's literally the perfect banner under which to gather. In 1964, a third student protest erupts in the Canal Zone. And this one will have lasting repercussions for the entire country. On January 9th, the American flag at Balboa High School is taken down on the orders of the government of the Canal Zone. The Zonian students walk out of class and raise another one themselves. Not to be outdone, the Panamanian students march on Balboa High, determined to hoist their own banner alongside the American one. In the ensuing

scuffle, the Panamanian flag gets torn, and then all hell breaks loose. The local police once again resort to tear gas, but this time the protesters will not be driven away. They begin throwing rocks at the officers. Soon bullets are flying as well. The riot makes the cover of Time magazine. The front page shows students climbing the Balboa flagpole while smoke billows from a burning vehicle. The violence soon spills out of the Canal Zone. The US Embassy in Panama City is hurriedly evacuated as rioters target American-owned

banks and businesses, causing $2 million worth of damage. With the National Guard still declining to get involved, the US Army attempts to put an end to the disturbance. But by the time the hostilities cease four days later, dozens are dead, among them an 11-year-old girl shot by the soldiers and a six-month-old baby who died after inhaling tear gas. In Panama, January 9th 1964 goes down in infamy as Martyr's Day. The following week, diplomatic relations with the United States are formally severed. Neither Omar Torrijos nor Manuel Noriega plays a direct role in the flag riots. But the problem at the Canal Zone will be the cause that defines Torrijos' political career.

And, as his influence increases, so too will that of his dubious disciple. In time, the two men will ride the growing wave of Panamanian nationalism all the way to power. By 1968, thanks to an injection of funds from Washington, the National Guard has grown to over 5,000 men, and Lieutenant Colonel Omar Torrijos is one of its leading lights. Torrijos has a clear position on the Panama Canal. It belongs in the hands of the Panamanians. But his vision for the country goes further. He wants to bring about social reforms that would improve the lot of the rural poor, increase

access to education, and redistribute wealth. Tarikos is no Marxist, but compared to the country's traditional business-oriented politicians, he certainly has left-wing leanings. The kind of nationalism that he exhibited was a little bit tilting to the left wing. But something very important to understand about Panama is that because of the geopolitics and the history, Panama is not an ideological place. This is not a fertile ground for ideological politics. And Torrijos is the quintessential expression of that.

He managed to always know that Panama is a country that cannot afford, first of all, to alienate the Americans, but second, to alienate the region. And I think Torrijos managed to understand that very well. When it comes to Noriega's own politics, experts are divided. Both Torrijos and Noriega saw themselves as ardent nationalists, Panama first. Get as much as you can, but the ultimate objective, Panama first. Noriega had no real belief system. Unlike his mentor, Torrijos, who most certainly did have a nationalist motto that he lived by. Noriega, by all accounts, really only had a few interests,

and they were money, women, money, booze. Whatever his personal beliefs, Noriega's wagon is hitched to the man of the moment. In 1968, Torrijos prepares to make a daring bid for power, and his young protégé is along for the ride. The military, the National Guard, starts to become more professional. And what that creates is among the National Guard a sense of ability and accomplishment, but also the military kind of says, okay, the civilians are so

inept, the civilians are so corrupt, maybe we can do it better than they can. They look out and they say, wait a minute, look at this sharp contrast between the Panama Canal zone and everything that could happen and the poverty, the lack of education that exists outside of the canal zone. the poverty, the lack of education that exists outside of the Canal Zone. And so this group of officers led by Omar Torrijos basically tried to right the wrongs of the past. This kind of meddling by the military has been a feature of Panamanian politics for generations. We could call them an arbiter, an arbiter of political power.

So when there was a sharp disagreement between political rivals, the military would step in and designate power to one side or the other. Matters come to a head with the election of the populist politician, Arnulfo Arias. Like Torrijos, Arias is a Panamanian nationalist, but he also holds a long-standing grudge against the National Guard. Less than a fortnight after taking office, he begins a reshuffle that will decimate their command structure. A number of senior guardsmen find themselves on the new transfer list.

find themselves on the new transfer list. Tarijos, currently serving as executive secretary and based at the guards' headquarters in Panama City, is ordered to leave the country at once for a diplomatic post in El Salvador. But before he vacates his office, Tarijos meets with other guardsmen who've been summarily dismissed from their positions. Together they hatch a plan to seize power, and they will action it within a matter of hours. That evening, President Arias is out at the cinema with his mistress. The plotters choose

this moment to strike. On their orders, guardsmen surround the presidential palace and lock down the airport. They seize control of TV and radio stations. Once Arias realizes what's happening, he jumps in his car and flees to the Canal Zone. From there he catches a plane to Miami. The whole coup is accomplished in a matter of hours, and without a single casualty. To begin with, Torrijos is just one of several senior guardsmen to assume the reins of power. Among these ringleaders, it's Major Boris Martinez who commands the largest number of troops. But it's Torrijos whose star is in the ascendant.

He soon becomes the dominant figure in the new regime. And lurking just behind him, offstage for now, is trusted confidant. All the civilians were out and the military came in in October of 1968, set up a sort of a junta to run the country. And within a year, Omar Torrijos had shouldered out Pintas and became the sole military force within the government. And he gradually demoted or shoved aside other military officers

who questioned his preeminence in the military government. Torrijos promotes himself to brigadier general and commander of the National Guard. By now, the Americans have formally recognized Panama's military government. But Torrijos' vision for wide-ranging social reforms is causing some concern internationally. The Americans consider him to be

a little bit more left of center than they would like. He was not a communist, but the perception was that he was a little bit to the left. He's a leftist, a dangerous leftist that can turn into communism so quickly. So it's got to be controlled. For Panamanians, our country needs economic and social and political progress. If that means we look like leftists to you, we have a problem. British diplomats offer another perspective on the country's new leader. Shrewd rather than intelligent, a note from the embassy reads He follows the Panamanian custom of womanizing, drinks heavily, and he is prone to find agreeable jobs for old friends

Friends like Noriega In October 1969, Torricos promotes his ally to major and gives him a prestigious new posting as commander of a National Guard garrison. It's a decision that will turn out very well for both of them before the year is out. Because within Panama, and within the military junta, there remain those who are concerned about Torrijos' plans for the country, and he is about to receive a reality check. country, and he is about to receive a reality check. In December 1969, the Commandant takes a trip to Mexico City. There he pays a visit to a racecourse. A Panamanian thoroughbred is competing in the prestigious Race of the Americas. From his ringside seat, he relaxes in the sun as the horses thunder along the track in front of him.

With their boss unwinding far away, some of Tarikos' co-conspirators from a year earlier decide that this is the moment to stage a second coup of their own. They seize the National Guard headquarters in Panama City. They seize the National Guard headquarters in Panama City That night, Tarricos receives a phone call warning him not to return to Panama But the veteran guardsman is not one to walk away from a fight I'm not ready for a life in exile, he tells his aide I would rather die over there in action than die from sadness here in Mexico Tarricos places a call to Noriega's barracks in the town of David. He tells him to prepare the landing strip there for an unscheduled arrival.

The commandant has hired a private plane for a fee of $6,000, but there's a problem. Its Mexican pilot has no idea how to get into Panama. there's a problem. Its Mexican pilot has no idea how to get into Panama. Fortunately, a legendary fighter pilot volunteers to come along for the ride. Red Grey is a World War II veteran and one of the top flyers in Central America, an ace for the Salvadorian Air Force. As co-pilot, he will be responsible for guiding them safely across the border. With no radar, Red Grey can only navigate by the lights of the cities below.

But somehow he manages to find the tiny airfield in Davide. The airstrip has no landing lights, but Noriega has come up with a workaround. A convoy of jeeps is lined up along the runway. As soon as the plane makes radio contact, he orders all the vehicles to turn on their headlights. The landing strip is bathed in brilliant light. And with a screech of burning rubber, the little plane touches down safely. Torrijos emerges to cheers from the men on the ground. At dawn the next day, Torrijos and Noriega set off for Panama City, leaving a convoy of vehicles. With every barracks they pass, more guardsmen join the caravan,

until a hundred jeeps and trucks are travelling in formation. They arrive in the capital to find the conspirators already under armed guard. Their attempted coup has collapsed in spectacular fashion. In a public show of magnanimity, Tarikos decides to exile rather than hang them. The triumphant return of the general, and Noriega with him, will go down in legend. Even today, it's called the Day of Loyalty in Panama. I think it's December 16, 1969. That's the day that Torrijos comes back from Mexico and the coup attempt fails. That's the day that Torrijos comes back from Mexico and the coup attempt fails.

And that's kind of the moment where the revolution, the mystique of the revolution kind of gets consolidated. And right next to Torrijos is Noriega. With the conspiracy put to bed, Torrijos sets about consolidating power. From now on, the general staff will be made up of younger loyalists, and they will be watched closely by someone he trusts, someone who's just received their fourth promotion in as many years. The newly minted Lieutenant Colonel Noriega is put in charge of Panama's intelligence services, known as G2. For a morally sketchy young man with a penchant for secrets, it's the perfect position.

I think his finest hour professionally is the time when he's Panama's chief of intelligence from 1970 until 1983, more or less, those 13 years, which also are probably Panama's finest hour in the international stage. There's a reverence in Panama for all that generation. Obviously, no one wants to talk about Noriega. This society is not ready to recognize the role that he played as Torrijos' chief of intelligence. Think of how small Panama is. If you've got about 2 million people and a good intelligence network, you can have a pretty good sense of who's who,

what's what, who's doing what. Torrijos used to say that there were three kinds of truth in the world. The white truth was the one that everyone knew. The gray truth was the one that he and Noriega knew. And the black truth was the one that everyone knew. The gray truth was the one that he and Noriega knew. And the black truth was the one that only Noriega knew. We should be clear that Torrijos was no angel. They were both engaged in very undemocratic, dirty business.

It's just that Torrijos knew that he had to keep his hands clean for public consumption. that he had to keep his hands clean for public consumption. Whereas Noriega, if he was the dark lord of the underworld and got jobs done for him, that's fine. In Star Wars terms, he was the Darth Vader to Torrijos' emperor. emperor. Noriega is now, as one CIA report puts it, probably the second most powerful man in Panama. And the CIA ought to know what they're talking about. After all, he's one of their assets. He was very well placed, obviously. Panama's strategic location, the fact that he was close to Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc., etc. He became a very good informant.

He was handling all the security relations with the Americans. And at the same time, he was being a bridge between the Americans and Cuba. You know, remember, this is the 70s. Up until 1985, he was actually getting paid $200,000 a year to be as an informant. What was not known for some time that, you know, he was already playing both sides. Compared to many other dictatorships, the regime in Panama is relatively restrained, for now at least. Human rights organizations count 34 political murders over the course of Tirico's 13 years in power. They're awful. They're wrong. But it's relatively small.

I talked to one of the civilian opponents who had been incarcerated by the military, and she said, you know, they make you fear torture rather than torturing you. Now, that was not everybody's experience. You know, some truly were tortured. But it's more psychological than physical punishment. It's the manipulation of fear. With Noriega keeping a close eye on enemies at home,

Torrijos is free to realize his grand vision for Panama. Much of his time is spent traveling the country, whether by jeep, helicopter or plane. Sometimes even on horseback. He spends his time hanging out with peasant workers and other marginalized groups. He convinces them that he will be their champion. Within a decade, the number of teachers in Panama has doubled, and the number of schools isn't far behind.

The whole country was enthralled by him and still is. And the whole of Latin America, he's still remembered as an incredible leader and incredible politician. Within just a few years, the military usurper has reinvented himself as the father of the nation. But Torrijos' biggest promise to his people remains unfulfilled. The Canal Zone is still in American hands. With the election of Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976, Torrijos spies an opportunity. The new president has promised to put moral principles at the heart of his foreign policy. And the way Torrijos sees it, ownership of the Canal Zone is very much a matter of principle. The Carter-Torrijos Treaties, signed in September 1977, marked the pinnacle of Torrijos' career.

They set a date for the US to finally relinquish control of the Canal Zone. December 31st 1999 not everyone in panama it must be said is happy with the outcome for the zonians it signals the end of an era and there was a lot of sadness because we felt at the time that president carter was turning our way of life our piece of land, over to Panama. If you were born and raised in the Canal Zone, you're called Izonian. And anybody that was born after December 31st of 1999 can no longer claim that. So we are an extinct species.

Tarikos' legacy is secure. But there is one more thing he wants to accomplish before he rides off into the sunset. After a decade of military rule, President Carter suggests, isn't it high time Panama returned to democracy? Torricos has grown to respect Carter during the lengthy treaty negotiations. And so, in 1978, he announces his plans for the transition. In six years time, an election will be held to choose a new president. He intends to form a new political party to continue the work he started. But despite repeated calls to stand, Torrijos insists that he is done with politics.

He begins searching for a civilian candidate to succeed him. In the meantime, Terrijos makes plans to retire the senior staff of the National Guard. Never again will a military junta hold the reins of power in Panama. The likes of Manuel Noriega will soon be out on their ears. There was a plan to start the process of democratization, which would have been more open elections. But of course, Omar Torrijos didn't live long enough to fulfill his vision. On July 30, 1981, Omar Torrijos boards a small twin-propeller plane. He's about to make the 12-minute flight from a friend's beach house to his own country pad in Coclicito. It's a stunning retreat nestled in the rainforest, the perfect place to decompress.

At 52 years old, Torrijos has shown little sign of slowing down. Of late, both Fidel Castro and Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito have warned him to cut back on unnecessary air travel. He was on a prop-driven plane and when he takes off, the weather was actually not ideal. Really bad weather, fairly light plane, cloudy mountains. He was impulsive. If he wanted to be somewhere, he wanted to be there. He insisted that his pilot fuel up the plane and fly to where he wanted to go. He insisted that his pilot fuel up the plane and fly to where he wanted to go. Probably flying in a plane in dangerous conditions would have been satisfying to his machismo, to his ego.

You know, we can do this. We can take care of this. Nothing's going to stop me. Of course, ultimately, hitting a mountain at 500 miles an hour does stop you, and it did. And his end came very suddenly for Panama. My parents, they remembered it. And they always say that it was like someone in the family had died, for everyone. A week later, thousands of mourners line the streets of Panama City. A riderless horse leads the funeral cortege from the Metropolitan Cathedral to the headquarters of the National Guard.

That afternoon, in a move rich with symbolism, the general's casket is brought to Ancon Hill, a vantage point within the canal zone that is visible from all over the city. There, at the foot of a giant flagpole, National Guard officers in smart dress uniforms lay their leader down on Panamanian soil. But even before Torricos' body is in the ground, the rumors start circulating. Usually when something like that happens, the obvious question was, who benefits the most? And it's clear who benefits the most.

The suspicions that Noriega was behind Torrijos' death was a very real story behind the scenes. his death was a very real story behind the scenes. Noriega had been an up and coming guy, and I kind of see that he was starting to get greedy with power. Why would you betray someone like Torrijos, you know, who gave you everything? And why would you do that? To serve who?

I don't doubt that the CIA might have had at least an intention to kill him or to deal with him in one way or another, maybe. But whether that actually translated into an operation to kill someone like Torrijos, I don't know. Obviously conspiracy theories abounded and they're still out there. I believe it really was just a plain accident due to careless piloting and impulsive desires on Torrijos' part. Whatever the cause of the crash, Torrijos' death leaves a power vacuum in Panama.

With his eyes on democratization, the general never gave much thought to an immediate military successor. But after several months of jockeying, one man rises to the top. Without a doubt, Torrijos' giving free rein to Noriega largely contributed to Noriega's ambitions. And once Torrijos was out of the picture, Noriega had no compunction about wanting to elevate himself even further because as the leader of the country, he was going to be in a position where no one could get in his way. And in fact, ultimately, that hubris would be his undoing.

The scene is now set for one of the most intriguing and secretive regimes the world has ever seen. In the next episode... Shielded by a puppet president, Noriega takes power. But the spymaster struggles in his new role as dictator. The war on drugs escalates in dramatic fashion. As the tide turns against Noriega, he will find himself on a collision course with the former director of Central Intelligence, a man who will shortly assume the US presidency, George H.W. Bush.

That's next time.