The truth behind US' Operation Just Cause in Panama

[Judi Lynn]

The truth behind US' Operation Just Cause in Panama


The more history that can be exhumed, the harder it will be for the US to hide behind noble intentions in the future.

31 Jan 2016 10:45 GMT


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General Colin Powell, centre, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during the operation, tours the bombed courtyard of the Panamanian Defense Force Comandancia in Panama City (Getty)
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Belen Fernandez

On January 31, 1990, the US invasion of Panama - dubbed Operation Just Cause - officially came to a close. While the US military has consistently lowballed the Panamanian death count of the short-lived affair, other observers have put the number of fatalities at several thousand.

As media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted at the time, Just Cause saw the impoverished Panama City neighbourhood of El Chorillo pulverised to the point of being referred to by ambulance drivers as "Little Hiroshima". In other words, no surgical strikes here.

Indeed, the foray into Panama was the largest US combat operation since the Vietnam War. The US government trotted out various noble justifications for the operation, such as improving the lot of the Panamanians by hauling their dictator, General Manuel Noriega, off to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

This was the same Noriega, of course, who had for years been a US favourite, occupying a prominent position on the CIA's payroll despite common knowledge of his involvement in the international drug trade.

A whole lot of birds

In typical fashion, the gringos managed to kill a whole lot of birds with the Just Cause stone. In addition to capturing Noriega - who was driven out of his refuge at the Vatican embassy in Panama by US troops blasting rock music in the direction of the compound - the US also reasserted its power in the area and conducted a trial run of military equipment for upcoming action in the Middle East.

As for the human beings killed by the same stone, Panama is now launching a truth commission to determine just what happened 26 years ago.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/01/truth-operation-panama-160131085323562.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. From Panama to Ferguson: Countering the devaluation of black lives

From Panama to Ferguson: Countering the devaluation of black lives

The 25th anniversary of the US invasion of Panama is a reminder that US state violence is not confined to its borders.

26 Dec 2014 10:04 GMT

Janvieve Williams Comrie

Janvieve Williams Comrie is the executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Centre.

"I was 11 years old when the invasion happened. It did not matter that there were Christmas lights blinking all over the country, or that in many houses the sun-kissed clothing lines filled the air with the fragrant aroma of lavender. What mattered is that for many, something horrible was going to come, despite not being sure what that would be. It could be sensed in the conversations, the empty sidewalks void of young people hanging out, or the lack of Christmas chaos in a tropical country. But no one would know the intensity of the sounds. Sounds many described as the end of the world. Sounds of the explosions, machine guns, hummer tanks, and loud blood curdling screams that would begin and then stop. And after a short, yet long silence, destruction continued. That's when I realised that the devil that we feared all those years, would have done less damage to my soul, my country and my land." Marta L Sanchez, Afropanamanian artist.

Twenty five years ago on December 20, 1989, El Chorrillo, an Afro-Panamanian neighbourhood in the centre of Panama city was the scene of a criminal assault by the military forces of the United States government.

A vigorous assault from the most powerful military body on the planet was unleashed by President George H W Bush to execute an arrest warrant issued by a US court on General Manuel Antonio Noriega, the de facto head of the sovereign state of Panama, and up until that time an obedient servant of US interests in the region.

Significant elements of the outgunned Panamanian defence forces had barracks in the El Chorrillo community and as a consequence it was turned into a free fire zone by the invading forces, despite the fact that the invaders knew that thousands of civilians also lived in the densely populated community.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/12/from-panama-ferguson-counteri-20141223105256345587.html

[forest444]

2. One of Poppy Bush's most heinous - and, of course, unpunished - crimes.

I remember reading years ago that, shortly before the aerial bombing campaign (which was also used to test the useless, billion-dollar F-117 stealth bombers) the local Panamanian gentry recommended to Bush that they use the El Chorrillo slum for their "test" (which they did).

Their idea of urban renewal.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Hideous. Didn't know it was actually approved from within, too. Figures, doesn't it? Pure evil. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Reporting on Panamanian Truth Commission, Al Jazeera Cites FAIR’s 1990 Work

Reporting on Panamanian Truth Commission, Al Jazeera Cites FAIR’s 1990 Work

Jan 31 2016

Writing in Al Jazeera (1/31/16) about Panama’s establishment of a truth commission to investigate the consequences of the 1989-90 US invasion of that country, Belén Fernández cites FAIR’s 1990 critique of invasion coverage (Extra!, 1-2/90):

As media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) noted at the time, Just Cause saw the impoverished Panama City neighborhood of El Chorillo pulverized to the point of being referred to by ambulance drivers as “Little Hiroshima.” In other words, no surgical strikes here….

Consider a passage from FAIR’s critique of the US media’s leap onto the Just Cause bandwagon—from which vantage point said media determined that Panamanians were, in fact, totally in favour of the death and destruction being rained upon their country:

Few [American] TV reporters seemed to notice that the jubilant Panamanians parading before their cameras day after day to endorse the invasion spoke near-perfect English and were overwhelmingly light-skinned and well-dressed.

More:
http://fair.org/home/reporting-on-panamanian-truth-commission-al-jazeera-cites-fairs-1990-work/

[Judi Lynn]

4. Panama Supports Truth Commission on 1989 US Invasion

Panama Supports Truth Commission on 1989 US Invasion

Panama, Jan 26 (Prensa Latina) The Panamanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations system offered today a workshop for representatives of civil society that will be part of the truth commission on the US invasion of Panama in 1989.

A note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it was analyzed the collective construction and development of institutional tools as the basis of what will be the Commission of December 20.

The group's objectives are the discovery of the truth, full knowledge of the number and identity of the victims and the recovery of collective memory, among others.

The Vice President of Panama, Isabel de Saint Malo, highlighted that a roadmap to honor the victims of the invasion was already defined, published the newspaper La Prensa.

Among the actions are included the development of a Truth Report, recommendation of proposals for victims reparation, evaluation of the installation of memorials, research the existence of possible graves, among other issues.

According to Professor Olmedo Beluche there are places, such as El Chorrillo, Corozal, Chepo and Arcoiris, that are still waiting for a through investigation of mass graves.

More:
http://www.plenglish.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4552351&Itemid=1

[MinM]

16. Panama launches investigation into 1989 US invasion

@BBCWorld

Panama launches investigation into 1989 US invasion

[Judi Lynn]

17. Thank you for your link from BBC. There's a reference to this documentary:

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I came to post it and realized you already did, months ago!

Anyone who can should see it, right?

Thanks.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

6. I worked with a man that said he was there

he said that the slaughter in one slum area was total

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thank you for mentioning it. Sad most US citizens didn't even know it happened. n/t

[MrScorpio]

8. This is the incident which politicized me for the rest of my life

[Judi Lynn]

9. It has everything you could think of to make a person absolutely sick with disgust, and sorrow. n/t

[Nitram]

10. I have always believed the operation was first and foremost...

...designed to send a message to CIA assets that you don't bite the hand that feeds you. Once you are an asset, you are always an asset, or else. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

[polly7]

11. TY Judi Lynn. nt.

[MinM]

12. The Panama Deception (1992)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027095888

[MinM]

13. Panama: Background And Buildup To Invasion Of 1989

Useful, interesting information on Panama, in the forefront during the Summit:

Panama: Background And Buildup To Invasion Of 1989
by Jane Franklin; Tuesday, September 18, 2007

. . .

OVERTHROW OF THE OLIGARCHY

1968: On October 11, the National Guard, under Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the government of the oligarchy and installs a junta from which Torrijos emerges the leader. He heads the armed forces 1968-81. Torrijos moves toward independence from Washington, relying on the nationalist base. Torrijos is not part of the oligarchy; his base comes from the dispossessed. Under his leadership, the Panamanian Defense Forces become part of the movement for national liberation. During the government of Torrijos and the National Guard, public schools increase from fewer than 2,000 to more than 3,000; infant mortality decreases from 40 to 25 per 1,000 live births; social security is extended by more than 1 million; roads and electricity are brought to rural areas; labor unions grow.

1972: Junta is confirmed by election. Torrijos remains as the head of Panamanian Defense Forces.

1974: Panama and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations.

1976: General Omar Torrijos makes a state visit to Cuba. In the joint communiqué issued by the two countries, Cuba supports Panama's struggle for sovereignty in the Canal Zone.

1976: On December 8, CIA Director George H.W. Bush meets with Manuel Noriega for lunch at the home of the Panamanian ambassador to the United States. Noriega, a graduate of the School of the Americas, is on the CIA payroll.

1977: The Carter Administration signs three agreements known as the Carter-Torrijos treaties, arranging for the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama at midnight December 31, 1999.

1979: The Carter-Torrijos treaties take effect October 1 and 65 percent of the Canal Zone is returned to Panama. Areas still under U.S. control are called green zones; those under Panamanian conrol are white zones. Washington has the responsibility of operating and defending the Canal through December 31, 1999, but not after that.

1981: Ronald Reagan becomes president January 20, with his commitment not to "lose" the Canal. Six months later, on July 31, General Omar Torrijos is killed in an airplane crash.

1983: On January 5, in an effort to settle Central American conflicts, the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela meet on the Panamanian island of Contadora and draft an initial proposal, calling for an end to all foreign intervention in the region, suspension of all military aid, and negotiations to end El Salvador's civil war and the fighting in Nicaragua between government troops and "contras."

More:
http://janefranklin.info/PanamaChronology.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110839585

Judi Lynn

[MinM]

14. Panama and the USA: A Finance Story

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Amidst all the clamor around the world prompted by the Panama Papers, there was one country that seemed to get fewer mentions than any other.

FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: Why haven’t we seen any big American names?

FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: The American people aren’t talking a great deal about the Panama Papers in part because no Americans have been named yet.

MALE CORRESPONDENT: Any high profile Americans in these documents?

MAN: Not yet, not yet. That, that has been significant.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But there's no denying that the US had a hand in putting Panama on the path to banking infamy...

I’ll let Noel Maurer, co-author of the book, The Big Ditch: How America Took, Built, Ran, and Ultimately Gave Away the Panama Canal, pick up the story from there.

NOEL MAURER: So the first thing they do is they find this guy named William Cromwell, basically a Republican fixer from Brooklyn. They give him the equivalent of $1.3 million, in today's money, to essentially connect them with American politicians to ensure that the congressional vote to build the canal goes through Panama and that they will get paid. The congressional vote goes through, but the Colombians don't want to make a deal before 1904 because they know that after 1904 that $40 million is going to go to them, instead of these shareholders in this bankrupt company sitting in France and the United States.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mm-hmm.

NOEL MAURER: So they stonewall. Then a French lawyer cuts $100,000 check to a bunch of Panamanians and tells them to declare independence on a certain date.

[BROOKE LAUGHS]

He then meets with the Secretary of State of the United States and the President - this is a French lawyer, I want to make this clear, working for a private company - and informs them that the revolution is going to happen on this date, please have warships available.

[BROOKE LAUGHS]

The warships block the Colombians’ ability to repress the rebellion, the United States recognizes Panama. The French lawyer is appointed the Foreign Minister of Panama to negotiate a treaty with the United States to build a canal, and that treaty has the - about all the advantages to Panama that you would expect from a treaty written under those circumstances.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Panama got the profoundly short end of the stick?

NOEL MAURER: So the treaty cleaves Panama in half. It gives the United States full sovereign control over a 10-mile zone around the canal. When the Panamanians want to reject it, the Secretary of State informs them that is only the Marines and the US Navy protecting them from a Colombian reinvasion and they might want to reconsider.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I know that there is a route from these kinds of treaties to the tax havens that we have today, but it starts with shipping, right?

NOEL MAURER: Yes, so it starts with a flag of convenience. So this is basically where an American ship will reflag itself as Panamanian, even though it is still owned by Americans. They avoid the unions ‘cause they’re not American. They get out of minimum-wage regulations. They can get hire foreigners. You can pay them in air. You can avoid safety regulations and inspections. It's a great deal. And the United States goes along with this because the US knows Panama is getting no benefit from the canal. And anything that they can do to help prop up the Panamanian government is going to avoid potential problems with the canal, so the US government is perfectly happy to look the other way.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So the Panamanian government starts to promote itself as a global tax haven in the 1950s. And, obviously, this is going to help out the US because Panama’s been a US dollar economy since the construction of the canal. Did American banks and the US government actively create the conditions for Panama to become this tax haven, money-laundering utopia, or did it just turn a blind eye?

NOEL MAURER: It turned a blind eye. You got to give the credit to a guy named Nicolás Barletta who actually came up with the idea. So he writes the first bank secrecy laws in 1959. He has the idea that we’ve been using the dollar forever, we have an incredibly stable banking system, but anyone can put money in there in absolute secrecy and no one ever will know who they are. The banking sector just explodes.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And the US turns a blind eye for the same reason it turned a blind eye to shipping, because it wants to buy off Panamanian public opinion and this is favorable to Panama. And also, the canal itself was a symbol of US power.

NOEL MAURER: The canal is declining in economic importance and strategic importance after World War II. It's actually becoming a money loser for the American government. Every American government from Harry Truman on actually wants to get rid of the thing but there's this big chunk of American public opinion that views the canal as a symbol of American prestige that we stole fair and square, and I am quoting a US senator on that.

[BROOKE LAUGHS]

And they don’t want to give it back.



In 1964, there are these horrible riots, where a number of people are killed. There's shooting between Panamanian snipers and American soldiers, and it's becoming politically contentious. And at that point, the US government really wants to do everything it can to cool the situation down in Panama because nobody wants an armed confrontation.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So let’s jump ahead to 1983. Manuel Noriega, the commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces, takes power and he basically sanctions money laundering. He's even partnering with the [LAUGHS] Medellín drug cartel. The US government is still turning a blind eye to Panamanian banks’ more illicit dealings, and it’s had Noriega on the payroll for years. So what was the CIA's interest in him that they could look past the Medellin?

NOEL MAURER: The Sandinistas in Nicaragua were running spy missions illegally at Howard Air Force Base, were funneling huge amounts of money to the Contras through Panama, and Noriega is actually even conducting covert operations inside Nicaragua on behalf of the United States. Panamanian agents actually explode bombs in the Sandinistas military headquarters in 1985. Given that the Reagan administration had this thing about the Sandinistas, it's incredibly useful to have Manuel Noriega onboard helping us out and providing us deniability in the covert war against the Nicaraguan government.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So why did the US turn against Noriega in 1989 and invade Panama?

NOEL MAURER: Because Noriega was an idiot.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] That hardly disqualifies the US from supporting anybody.

NOEL MAURER: I agree but Noriega almost deliberately goes out of his way to make it impossible for the United States to continue supporting him. So first, he kills a political opponent, a guy named Hugo Spadafora, in 1985 by decapitating him while he’s still alive –

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ohh –

NOEL MAURER: - not realizing that Hugo Spadafora has connections with right-wing American politicians like Jesse Helms who were kind of a little angry that he was decapitated. When you're losing Senator Jesse Helms, you’ve got a political problem. Then when another military leader in his government, a guy named Roberto Diaz, pronounces against him he then immediately arrests Roberto Diaz. And the thing about Roberto Diaz is he has connections with the Sandinistas and the US considers him a Communist sympathizer, but once he's out of the way the US could now take out Noriega without worrying that that is going to put a Sandinista Communist sympathizer in command of Panama.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So he cleared away one of the US obstacles. [LAUGHS]

NOEL MAURER: It's mind-bogglingly moronic. I mean, Noriega in 1990 basically annulled an election. Guillermo Endara won that election. Once Noriega's out of office, the Endara administration comes back and takes over.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Why aren’t there more US names in that damning list in the Panamanian Papers?

NOEL MAURER: Panama and the United States are joined at the hip. These are two countries that have had a long association with each other. The potential political blowback from aiding or abetting activities by Americans is quite large. At the same time, Panama is not the only country where you can set up an offshore account to launder money.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: We’ve got the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Switzerland - and Delaware.

NOEL MAURER: If you're an American, you’ve got a lot of options where you’re far less likely to come to the attention of authorities, either in that country or of the United States.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But the current Panama banking system exists because of the first Roosevelt administration's involvement and later administrations trying to get out of a Panama political problem by turning a blind eye.

[MAURER LAUGHS]

So we created Panama in a sleazy deal and thus, Panama’s dealmaking is sleazy?

NOEL MAURER: The deal we gave the Panamanians gave them no other way to benefit from the fact that they had this great geographical position, other than by engaging in the flag of convenience, bank secrecy and the Colón Free Zone, an area of free imports and exports, because it was not until the 1970s that the country was able to actually benefit directly from the presence of the Panama Canal on its soil.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ah. Why? You just said it’s a big money loser.

NOEL MAURER: No, not anymore. One of the great miracles has been when the canal was handed over to Panama how much better the Panamanians have run the thing than the Americans did...

http://www.wnyc.org/story/panama-canal-tax-haven/

[libdem4life]

15. God help me...it was terrible.

Seems the Ortega/Sandinista debacle was around that time,too. But, they hate us for our freedumbs.

Pray for a sensible foreign policy...that would be Bernie. The other one is business (literally) as usual.