page_title: Manuel Noriega
section_title: CIA involvement and U.S. support
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Noriega / De facto rule of Panama / CIA involvement and U.S. support
caption_attribution_description: English: A.R.D.E. Frente Sur Commandos El Serrano Nicaragua 1987
context_page_description: Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He had longstanding ties to United States intelligence agencies before he was removed from power by the U.S. invasion of Panama.
  Born in Panama City to a poor mestizo family, Noriega studied at the Chorrillos Military School in Lima and at the School of the Americas. He became an officer in the Panamanian army, and rose through the ranks in alliance with Omar Torrijos. In 1968, Torrijos overthrew President Arnulfo Arias in a coup. Noriega became chief of military intelligence in Torrijos's government, and after Torrijos's death in 1981, consolidated power to become Panama's de facto ruler in 1983. From the 1950s until shortly before the U.S. invasion, Noriega worked with U.S. intelligence agencies. Noriega was one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most valued intelligence sources, as well as one of the primary conduits for illicit weapons, military equipment and cash destined for U.S.-backed forces throughout Latin America.
context_section_description: For many years Noriega acted as a conduit for U.S. support, including funds and weapons, to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He allowed the CIA to establish listening posts in Panama, and also helped the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government against the leftist Salvadoran insurgent Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. U.S. spy ships used bases in Panama in their operations against the Nicaraguan government, and much of the intelligence gathered by these ships was processed in the U.S. bases in Panama. Noriega permitted these activities despite the Panama Canal treaties restricting the use of the U.S. bases to protecting the canal.
  Bush, now U.S. vice president, met again with Noriega in December 1983 to discuss support for the Contras. Noriega had a working relationship with U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North by 1985. Noriega offered to help North assassinate or sabotage Sandinista leaders in return for North helping Noriega improve his image with the U.S. government. In June 1985 North met with Noriega in Panama and Noriega agreed to train Contra soldiers in Panama for an invasion of Nicaragua in 1986. Noriega has been reported to have played a role in the Iran–Contra affair in the mid-1980s, in which the proceeds of arms sales to Iran were smuggled to support the Contras. 
  At Noriega's trial in 1991–1992, the U.S. government stipulated that it had paid $322,000 to Noriega. Journalists and historians have suggested the figure was much higher: Kempe suggested $110,000 annually, while others have posited $200,000 per year. Kempe suggested that the budget provided to Noriega for his intelligence activities was $200,000 every year. These payments included a total of $76,039 as "gifts and incentives" from the CIA. CIA director William Webster would nonetheless describe Noriega as an ally in the U.S. government's war on drugs. Officials in the Reagan administration stated that Noriega's drug-related activities had been overlooked because he was an ally of the U.S. in the conflicts in Central America. The U.S. was also concerned that any successor to Noriega would not tolerate the U.S. military's presence within Panama.
  A 1988 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations concluded: "The saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate U.S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each U.S. government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellín Cartel (a member of which was notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar)." Noriega was allowed to establish "the hemisphere's first 'narcokleptocracy'". Kempe argued in 1990 that the U.S. provided much of the training that allowed him to seize control of Panama, and called Noriega's relationship with the U.S. a "sordid marriage of convenience".
caption: The Contras in Nicaragua, who received support from the U.S. via Noriega's administration.
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