PANAMA'S BAD NEWS GENERAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620010-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: July 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620010-9
ARTICLE APP ED
ON PAGE
Panama's Bad
News General
More Noriega charges
Panama's strongman, Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega, is now up to his
epaulets in bad news. Last week Sen.
Jesse Helms said, "There's no question
about Mr. Noriega being the... head of the
biggest drug-trafficking operation in the
Western Hemisphere." Interviewed on
NBC's "Meet the Press," Helms even inti-
mated that Noriega might have had a hand
in the air crash that killed Panama's popu-
lar dictator, Gen. Omar Torrijos. Other
charges continued to leach out from U.S.
sources about activities ranging from dope
dealing to murder.
Noriega's spokesman, Maj. Edgardo Lo-
pez Grimaldo, accused U.S. critics of con-
cocting the charges in a plot to keep the
canal and dismissed Helms as "a racist and
a member of the Ku Klux Klan." Such
ripostes are unlikely to plug the leaks in
Washington. One ILS in .ellip nap official
likened the Panamanian strongman to a
mob chieftain exce t his "family" includes
Panama's 15000-strong Nations a ease ping and communications and provide sup-
Forc . "It's really a Mafia group running a port for Honduras, El Salvador and the
country," he said. Allegations from U.S. contras. In the short term, the administra-
intelligence sources ran to uniformed ca- tion can ill afford to lose Panama's coopera-
o
ooonents_deal in guns and drugs smugg a campaign in high gear. Supporting Norie-
and launder hundreds ofmil- ga too strongly could tarnish America's
lions of dollars in narcotics Profits. credibility and contribute to an upheaval
U.S. officials gathered some of their evi- in Panama that could jeopardize U.S. inter-
dence against Norie a t you wire ap- ests. Many Panamanians saw the charges
ping and electronic eavesdropping late i- against Noriega as part of a concerted U.S.
NEWSWEEK
7 July 1986
gence sources told NEwswEEx Because of
that, they believe that Noriega ordered the
grisly murder of opposition leader. Dr.
Hugo Spadafora, whose decapitated body
was discovered last fall dumped in Costa
Rica, stuffed into a U.S. mailbag. Denying
the charge, Noriega claimed he had the
most to lose from the death, since it would
be blamed on him, and his spokesman la-
beled Spadafora "a professional guerrilla."
Noriega "didn't cut off his head," said one
knowledgeable source, "but he directed the
entire operation." "We had testimony of
planeloads of drugs taking off from mili-
tary airfields," said a Helms staffer present
at secret hearings on Panama. Said Nor-
man Bailey, a former national-security-af-
fairs adviser to the president: "The ingredi-
ents are there for Panama to become the
first country to institutionalize the drug
11
traffic.
Others contended that Noriega has
played both sides of the isthmus, peddling
arms to left-wing guerrillas in El Salvador
and offering to do so for right-wing contras.
U.S. officials told NEWSWEEK that he has
let the free port in Colon circumvent the
U.S. blockade of Cuba and export high tech-
nology to the East bloc.
Concerted Policy: The scandal is more than
an embarrassment. The U.S. Southern
Command is headquartered in Panama.
U.S. troops guard the canal, monitor ship-
government policy. Even opposition leader
Ricardo Arias Calderon was suspicious. "I
don't think this has as much to do with a
true concern for democracy as it does with
real concern for the Panama Canal and
U.S. security in the region."
Asked how the administration planned
to handle Noriega, one senior White House
official said, "I haven't the foggiest idea."
"What are we supposed to do, shut down
the canal?" said another high administra-
tion official. So the State Department e7STAT
pressed cautious concern about the charges
and the Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion continued to praise Noriega for regu-
larly turning in dope dealers. The affair
recalls the ambivalence of the Reagan ad-
ministration in the final months of Ferdi-
nand Marcos. Once again the United States
is in the awkward position of trying to dis-
tance itself from an ally whom, at least for
the moment, it cannot afford to alienate.
ROD NORDLAND 11?ilh RICHARD SA NDZA N!
W?Shtn' iZ BA LMASEDA in Panama ('I
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620010-9