The Dictator's Playbook

[chop-chop of helicopter blades] (male narrator) December 20, 1989.

25,000 U.S. troops descend on Panama City.

[loud explosion] It's the biggest American invasion since the Vietnam War.

Their mission-- to capture one man... Panama's military dictator, Manuel Noriega.

(John Dinges) The United States became enraged at this two-bit dictator who was defying it.

(narrator) U.S. soldiers scour Panama City, hunting for Noriega... but he's nowhere to be found.

He basically goes into hiding.

(narrator) Noriega's turbulent 6-year rule has been marked by violence, deception, and excess.

(Orlando J. Prez) He was willing to do just about anything to get ahead.

(Natasha Ezrow) He was not only corrupted by power, but he was also corrupted by greed.

(Roberto Eisenmann) He was a gangster.

Basically a gangster in a military uniform.

(narrator) How did a kid who grew up in poverty grow rich as dictator of Panama?

And what did he do to provoke an invasion by the world's most powerful nation?

[loud applause & cheering] (woman) Dictatorships have had an incredible impact in the past century.

These dictators ended up learning from one another.

(man) They're all different but many use the same tactics.

(woman) The use of terror.

(man) Propaganda.

(woman) Control the elites.

Create an enemy.

Cult of personality.

(man) Use violence-- These are tools that dictators use to stay in power.

(narrator) Manuel Noriega's rise to dictator is a near miracle given the dire circumstances of his childhood.

He's born in Panama City in 1934.

Orphaned by the age of 5, Noriega is raised by his godmother, in the rough market area of Terraplen.

Young men born into the social strata where he was born, their life chances of rising to prominence and power was very limited.

(narrator) As Noriega grows up on the mean streets, he's picked on for his small size and his acne-scarred complexion.

But he finds a way to improve his lot in life.

(John Dinges) Noriega saw himself as getting ahead through education, he was incredibly intelligent, good student, somebody who always excelled at his classes.

(narrator) Noriega applies himself and wins a position in Panama City's best high school.

[chanting] (narrator) Like many other Panamanian students in the early 1950s, he is swept up in a wave of anti-American sentiment that stems from the U.S. ownership of the Panama Canal.

It's a conflict that will play a key role in his life and set the stage for his eventual dictatorship.

(Orlando J. Prez) That was the great struggle of Panamanian 20th-century history-- to recover national sovereignty, to recover the Panama Canal.

[loud explosion] (narrator) Back in 1903, America secured the right to build the Canal a reward for helping Panama gain its independence from Colombia.

The Panamanian elites who supported the process of independence, made a bargain-- gave the United States the authority to build the canal, gave the U.S. control in perpetuity.

Because to those elites, independence and building the Panama Canal, was at the time more important than preserving national sovereignty.

(narrator) The Canal opens in 1914, and transforms international trade by linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

It generates more than $20 million a year for the United States, and enriches Panamanian elites.

And so those elites, for many Panamanians of middle class and lower class, became traitors to their country.

They sold out their country for the benefits of the canal.

(Roberto Eisenmann) It became a source of irritation because the United States created what in essence was a U.S. colony in the midst of our country.

(narrator) It's called the Canal Zone, a strip of land on both sides of the canal occupied by some 57,000 Americans... mostly military.

(Orlando J. Prez) That fueled a tremendous level of resentment toward the United States.

(narrator) The tide of U.S. resentment fans Noriega's growing nationalism.

Graduating high school, he boldly declares his ambitions.

If you look at his yearbook, he says, my ambitions are to become a psychiatrist and the president of Panama.

(narrator) But Noriega's aspirations are nearly impossible, because of the inherent discrimination in Panama's class system.

His heritage is Creole, a mix of African and European ancestry.

The country's elite, just 10% of all Panamanians, are Caucasian.

They've held the positions of power since Panama was founded.

(Orlando J. Prez) It was a political system that was elite dominated.

It was what one would call an oligarchic limited democracy.

And so elections were held on a regular basis, but those elections were essentially manipulated by this elite to keep control of the political system.

(narrator) When Noriega tries to become a doctor, the harsh reality hits home.

(John Dinges) He didn't get into medical school because the medical school had a limited number of seats, and they were almost all given to the white upper class kids from the other part of town.

(narrator) But Noriega is still driven to get ahead.

And when he runs into a friend who's in military school he decides to follow another route, one taken by many would be dictators.

(Mariam Mufti) It is quite common for dictators to rise up the ranks through the military and eventually, through means of a coup, establish themselves as dictators.

Throughout the 20th century we've seen a number, a huge number of dictators who actually were, in fact, active or retired military officers.

(narrator) In 1958, the 24-year-old Noriega is a long way from becoming an officer in Panama's army.

But he catches a break when he lands a scholarship to a prestigious military school.

He was very well-adapted to military life because of the kind of intelligence he had.

He's somebody who sizes up a situation, see's where the best alternative is and very decisively goes for it.

(narrator) After graduating in 1962, Noriega joins the National Guard, Panama's military force.

Months later, he's stationed in Colon as a second lieutenant.

It's there that he meets the man who will take him to the brink of power, his commanding officer, Major Omar Torrijos.

Torrijos was an attractive, charismatic figure, and he was idolized by members of the military, and Noriega idolized him.

(narrator) Torrijos is a populist.

His dream is to recover the Canal for all Panamanians.

But to make it a reality, he needs political power.

Torrijos was very ambitious, his goal was to become the head of the country.

(narrator) Torrijos sees promise in the young Noriega, and presents him with an opportunity.

He assigns Noriega to the National Guard's intelligence branch, later known as the G2.

Noriega gets intelligence training at the School of the Americas, a U.S. run military program in the Canal Zone.

Its official goal is to instill Democratic values and to train its students to fight the spread of communism, but it also instructs them in the use of blackmail, coercion, torture, and execution.

Critics call it a school for dictators.

(John Dinges) Noriega discovered his vocation as an intelligence officer.

And he was described by his course commander as outstanding.

So Torrijos basically bet on this young officer, and Noriega became a very, very effective officer for Torrijos.

(Orlando J. Prez) Every great leader needs a henchman, somebody to do the dirty work.

And Noriega was perfectly willing to be that henchman.

Noriega was behind the scenes eavesdropping on opponents, repressing opponents, cracking heads.

Over time Noriega becomes basically the right-hand man for Torrijos.

(narrator) By 1968, Noriega has helped to make Torrijos one of Panama's most powerful military leaders.

But Panama's National Guard still answers to its political leaders.

[applause] Like the newly-elected president, Arnulfo Arias.

Arias is worried the military's growing political strength could pose a threat to his regime.

(Orlando J. Prez) Immediately after becoming president he essentially began a purge of the National Guard.

(narrator) Arias informs Torrijos he is sending him to El Salvador as a military attach.

Without Torrijos, everything Noriega has worked for could be lost.

But on October 11, 1968, Torrijos turns the tables on Arias by leading a military coup.

Noriega plays a key role, by shutting down radio and telephone stations in the Chiriqui province, Arias' power base.

Arias has no way to get help, and Torrijos quickly takes control.

[loud cheering] (narrator) Omar Torrijos is now Panama's military dictator.

He quickly moves to gain consent among Panamanians, including many supporters of Arnulfo Arias.

And he comes into power with a program of land distribution, social programs, emphasizing education, and basically doing things that will appeal to the underprivileged and forgotten people of Panama, this majority of the country who had been ignored pretty much by the businessmen who had been running the country before.

(narrator) Noriega reaps the benefits when Torrijos promotes him to Chief of Military Intelligence, the head of G2.

The kid from the wrong side of the tracks is now Lieutenant Colonel Noriega.

His new position opens up a clearer pathway to power, one taken by many dictators on the rise.

Coming from an intelligence background is incredibly important in any kind of dictatorship because you know exactly what is happening.

You know who the threats are, and you know what to do about those threats.

(Mariam Mufti) As a chief intelligence officer you are in fact also one of the most powerful individuals.

And that is essentially the key to Noriega's power.

(narrator) Noriega is now the eyes and ears of the regime, and he uses the information he gathers to crush Torrijos' rivals.

(Orlando J. Prez) Noriega had a free hand to do what he wanted, and he was ruthless.

In basically cracking down on, on the opposition.

(narrator) Rumors circulate about Noriega's involvement in several disappearances, like Hctor Gallego, a young priest who angered the regime in 1971 by organizing the peasants politically.

(John Dinges) Gallego was arrested and last seen in military custody.

There was a report that he was beaten up so badly that his, his face was distorted and that then they couldn't then bring him back and so they threw his body out of a helicopter into the ocean.

His body was never found.

(narrator) But for many, there is little doubt who is responsible.

(Rubn speaks Spanish) And that's why Torrijos called him "my gangster" because when he had to kill people, he killed people-- that's no problem.

(narrator) But Torrijos' loyal soldier is up to something behind the scenes.

He's using his position for more than just crushing the regime's rivals.

(Orlando J. Prez) There is clear evidence that Noriega's allegiance was not necessarily to Torrijos but to himself.

(narrator) Noriega has developed a clandestine relationship that will define his dictatorship in the decades to come.

He has been secretly working as a paid informant... for the United States.

In the United States, there was this fear that revolution was in the air and that it was being propagated by Cuba.

[loud cheering] (narrator) Since Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, the U.S. has feared that Communism will spread all the way up to Mexico.

Central America has become a Cold War battleground.

[loud roar of the crowd] And so for the United States, the ability to gain intelligence on these groups was essential to fighting the infiltration of communism in the U.S. backyard.

(narrator) Well-positioned to provide intelligence on the region's communists Noriega becomes a U.S. spy.

It's the culmination of a relationship that began when he was in military school.

(Peter Eisner) In the '60s and '70s, they saw him as a useful asset.

He was providing information about student activist groups, left-wing groups in South America.

So they began to cultivate him in those early years.

He was getting payments from the CIA to operate all of the things that the United States needed him to do for them, including intelligence and wiretaps of people all over the place.

(narrator) By the mid 1970s Noriega is the most important asset the U.S. has in Central America.

But he's not just spying on the Cubans for the U.S., he's spying on the U.S. for the Cubans.

Noriega was somewhat of a double agent, and he was exchanging information between the U.S. intelligence and passing it on to the Cuban intelligence and so forth.

Noriega relished the ability to do intelligence operations.

He loved it; he loved the game.

(narrator) At the height of his intelligence game he's selling information to at least 10 different countries, including Nicaragua, Israel, Taiwan, France, and England.

Noriega manages all of this, like the octopus with many hands, and it was in his own interest, more than it was for any ideological purpose.

(narrator) Noriega's growing power and influence within the nation don't go unnoticed.

A U.S. Department of Defense intelligence report declares Noriega "the possible future dictator of Panama."

Even Torrijos begins to feel uneasy.

(Roberto Eisenmann) Torrijos needed him but feared him at the same time because he felt that anytime he might turn on him.

(narrator) Noriega may be one of the most powerful men in Panama, but his situation is precarious.

[cheers & applause] September, 1977, Torrijos signs an historic treaty with U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

It guarantees that Panama will gradually gain control of the canal and its revenues over the next 22 years.

It's a huge victory for the people, the country, and Torrijos.

But it could mean trouble for Noriega.

During the negotiations, Torrijos promised to transition to a democracy.

Noriega saw that process of opening as dangerous.

Dangerous to the ability of the military, and of himself probably, of maintaining control.

(narrator) And Noriega's right.

Political exiles who'd been expelled by the regime return to Panama.

Free elections are planned.

Democracy is in the wind, and it could spell the end of Noriega's rise.

But on July 31, 1981, an event occurs that changes everything.

(narrator) Panama and its dictatorship are thrown into chaos when the plane of 52-year-old Omar Torrijos disappears west of Panama City.

The wreckage is soon discovered in the hills of Cerro Marta.

There are no survivors.

There has always been rumors, never proven, that Noriega had a hand in Torrijos' accident.

(narrator) But Noriega is officially cleared of suspicion in the tragedy.

And as Torrijos' death is mourned by hundreds of thousands, the question is, who will replace him?

Torrijos' death resulted in a leadership vacuum.

And that vacuum had to be filled by someone.

(narrator) As the head of G2 and Torrijos' right-hand man, Noriega has a wide-open path to the leadership.

all he has to do is take it.

(Mariam Mufti) Noriega being the chief intelligence officer, and having the most access to what was going on, the undercurrents at the time, seized the moment to advance his own agenda and rise to the top himself.

(narrator) By August, 1983, Manuel Noriega holds the top military position in the country-- Commander of the National Guard.

Like Torrijos before him, he is the country's de facto leader.

All of a sudden Noriega's the most powerful man in Panama, and he quoted Torrijos, "The first duty of a man in power is to stay in power."

(narrator) That won't be easy.

Noriega already faces a daunting obstacle-- Torrijos' promise to the U.S. that Panama will hold democratic elections.

If Noriega keeps that pledge, he could find himself sidelined.

He needed the veneer of democracy, he needed the country to seem to be a civilian dominated democracy to avoid the opposition from getting too much power.

(narrator) Opposition politicians have their own agenda.

They want to limit the power of the military and create a more democratic Panama.

Noriega has a plan to keep the opposition at bay while he rules from the shadows, an elected puppet president will do his bidding.

It was going to be a democracy under the control of the military.

(narrator) To pull it off Noriega needs his puppet candidate, Nicolas Ardito Barletta, to win the presidency.

But on election day, 1984, as the results start coming in, Bartlett is losing.

And then Noriega intervenes.

60,000 opposition votes suddenly disappear.

Barletta becomes president.

On the surface Panama appears to be a democracy, but Noriega holds the real power.

Supposedly the president is the top person in the country, but in fact, it's really Noriega.

(narrator) from the start, Noriega is a polarizing figure.

(Orlando J. Prez) For the opposition in Panama, they saw him as someone who was ruthless in the way he gained power.

Now, for others, his group of supporters, he was a nationalist defender of Panama against the imperial U.S. trying to dominate Panama.

(narrator) Noriega quickly sets out to reap the benefits of his position.

(Mariam Mufti) Amassing personal fortunes for dictators is a symbol of prestige, of grandiosity, and even invincibility.

That hoarding aspect of taking and extracting revenue and wealth from, from society, and using it for your own purposes, is a hallmark of most dictatorships.

(narrator) In the early '80s, Noriega sees a new way to turn his power into money-- the drug trade.

(John Dinges) When Torrijos is gone, that coincides with the rise of the drug cartels in Columbia, 1981 is really the founding of the Medellin Cartel by Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa.

Noriega very quickly is in touch with that network of people.

Tons of cocaine were being produced in the jungles of Peru and Colombia, and they needed ways to get the material through to the United States or Europe or anyplace else.

(John Dinges) Drugs begin to fly in and out of Panama and he starts to make $150,000 per flight.

(narrator) Over the next few years, Noriega will pocket an easy $10 million to $15 million.

And soon he's not just running drugs, he's running arms for the Americans.

The Reagan administration is arming the Contras in Nicaragua and other anti-communist rebels in Central America.

(John Dinges) He's involved in transporting arms back and forth to the various fighting forces in the Central American civil wars.

So he is now becoming a key person in the clandestine business happening in central America.

(narrator) But Noriega's schemes don't go unnoticed.

Hugo Spadafora, a hugely popular leftist revolutionary, has learned of his illicit activities.

And he's publicly denouncing him.

[Hugo speaking Spanish] (John Dinges) Hugo Spadafora was a tall, handsome, Italian decent Panamanian, I call him a romantic revolutionary.

And he is going on television saying Noriega's a dictator, Noriega's a drug trafficker, Noriega is repressing freedoms.

Noriega is furious.

(narrator) Noriega is further enraged in September, 1984, when Spadafora takes his claim to the opposition newspaper, La Prensa.

it prints the story which echoes far beyond the borders of Panama.

It even raises eyebrows in the White House.

Up to now, the U.S. government has kept a blind eye to Noriega's drug trafficking because of his help with intelligence and running arms.

Now, the U.S. is forced to at least appear to take some action.

(John Dinges) The United States does make it known that we have heard that you're involved in drug trafficking and that's a really, really bad thing.

Noriega kind of salutes and says okay, I'm out of it.

(narrator) But Noriega's just playing the U.S.

He merely reduces his role in trafficking drugs.

And he discovers a way to profit even more from the cartels-- by laundering their money in Panamanian banks.

Steven Kalish, the leader of a smuggling ring that has imported hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs into the U.S., hopes Noriega will help him clean millions of dollars of dirty money.

(Steven Kalish) I met Noriega, he told me that he thought that everything I was looking for I could find in Panama.

He provided me a safe banking haven.

It allowed me to bring in $25 million, $30 million that had been sitting in a house in Tampa Florida.

(narrator) And Kalish is just the tip of the iceberg.

Noriega hauls in about $10 million a month by laundering the Cartels' money, totaling as much as $350 million by the early '80s.

After amassing his fortune, Noriega has no compunction about spending it.

He splurges on luxury cars, mansions, and estates all over the world.

(Steven Kalish) He lived a lavish lifestyle.

He had very beautiful women flown in from the U.S.

It was extremely festive.

He was fun to be around.

(Rubn Dario Paredes speaking Spanish) (narrator) Noriega's the wealthiest man in Panama.

But he still doesn't have what he desperately wants-- respect.

[Noriega commands; men respond] (Peter Eisner) If there's one thing that he wanted was to be seen as being a Panamanian nationalist in the way Omar Torrijos was seen, and a figure to be honored.

But he was never going to be seen as the charismatic swashbuckling, handsome fellow, his physical appearance was always a detriment to that, and it was painful, and it really hurt.

(narrator) Noriega's nemesis, Hugo Spadafora, is everything Noriega isn't.

And Spadafora's criticisms are turning the people against him.

(John Dinges) Hugo Spadafora signaled that he was going to lead an opposition movement against Noriega.

(Natasha Ezrow) Hugo Spadafora was a real threat to his power.

And so instead of keeping him around, where he could foment dissent and help civil society groups continue to challenge Noriega, he did something about it.

(narrator) September 17, 1985.

The headline in La Prensa delivers the shocking news.

Guerilla fighter and political leader, Hugo Spadafora, has been murdered... he is found in a Costa Rican river, stuffed in a U.S. mailbag.

He was beheaded.

And it's said that beheaded alive and tortured horribly.

You look at that photograph, and you can't get over it forever.

(narrator) Spadafora was last seen when Panamanian soldiers took him off a bus near the Panama/Costa Rica border.

Many suspect that Manuel Noriega is behind the crime.

[Rubn Dario Paredes speaking Spanish] That was a, a very important moment where Noriega actually started going downhill.

(narrator) Panamanians are outraged by Spadafora's murder... 80,000 attend his funeral.

And they're further inflamed when Panamanian officials file no charges in the case.

The press coverage of the Spadafora incident causes widespread unrest among the public.

Noriega needs to find a way to change the narrative.

(Mariam Mufti) Dictators want to make sure that the messaging that is going out to the citizens supports the dictator's agenda.

So if a free media is relentlessly criticizing the dictatorship, dictators often use the practice of preemption to control the message.

And Noriega was really good at that.

(John Dinges) Noriega sent his troops in to raid the offices of La Prensa, to show them don't go investigating things that you shouldn't be investigating.

(Roberto Eisenmann) We were receiving death threats on a weekly basis.

We had to make a decision.

I said go back to your families, and talk to them tonight, and tell them you're going to involve yourself in a life-threatening objective, we're either going for it, or we're not.

And everybody came back and said, "Let's go."

(narrator) Noriega's in a bind.

To keep up the semblance of democracy he can't completely silence the press.

And he pays the price in June, 1986, when New York Times reporter, Seymour Hersh, publishes an expos.

Hersh details the dictator's illicit activities and claims that the U.S. knew about them, but turned a blind eye.

(Orlando J. Prez) The biggest revelation of that article was the fact that the U.S. was complicit in Noriega's illicit activities well back into the 1970s.

(narrator) The news is an embarrassment for the Reagan administration.

(Orlando J. Prez) This was a drug trafficker cooperating with drug cartels in the midst of the Reagan administration's strong war on drugs.

It became shameful for the U.S. government to continue supporting Noriega openly.

(narrator) Noriega spends months currying favor with his U.S. allies, trying to stem the bleeding from the Hersh article.

Noriega used my private jet to fly to Washington DC to meet with the director of the CIA.

Upon his return Noriega said with a big smile on his face that the U.S. needed him for assistance in the war on drugs.

(narrator) Noriega assists the DEA on Operation Pisces, a massive crackdown on Colombian drug cartels that results in the indictment of kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Noriega's men arrest 40 drug traffickers and seize millions from money laundering accounts in 18 Panamanian banks.

Noriega's U.S. allies are satisfied... but he's facing a threat from someone on the inside of his regime, his second in command, Colonel Roberto Diaz Herrera.

(Orlando J. Prez) Roberto Diaz Herrera was a friend of Noriega and a collaborator of Noriega and Torrijos from the 1960s.

(narrator) When Noriega first took power, he made a deal with Herrera-- to give him a turn as leader after 4 years.

In May, 1987, Noriega's time is up, and Herrera wants in.

But now that Noriega's on top, he's not stepping down for anyone.

(Orlando J. Prez) Noriega as he was apt to do, double-crossed him, and went back on his agreement.

And basically cashiered Diaz Herrera to some diplomatic post.

(narrator) But Herrera refuses to go quietly.

He takes his story to the press and makes some explosive claims.

He maintains that he helped Noriega rig the 1984 election.

Even worse, Herrera accuses Noriega of ordering Hugo Spadafora's murder, and of planting a bomb on Torrijos' plane.

[loud chanting] Herrera's allegations trigger mass revolt among the people.

A few days after these revelations, massive protests took place in the streets of Panama City protesting the regime.

(narrator) Noriega arrests Herrera for high treason, and the angry protests swell to 100,000 people.

It was pots and pans and white handkerchiefs.

It was a nonviolent movement.

[horns honking; people yelling] (narrator) The protestors ridicule Noriega's appearance, calling him "Pineapple Face."

And the military dictator, enraged, cracks down hard.

(Roberto Eisenmann) He reacted violently, people were jailed and tortured and so forth, it was quite horrible.

(narrator) The turmoil is broadcast all over the world.

A state of emergency is declared.

It appears Noriega is losing control of the country.

(Orlando J. Prez) The impact of the Herrera revelations was significant in essentially making it even more difficult for the U.S. to simply look the other way.

Politically, it was unpalatable, untenable to give him a free pass.

(narrator) On June 26, 1987, the U.S. calls for Noriega's removal.

The administration tries to force him to step down: cutting Noriega from CIA payrolls, and indicting him for drug trafficking and money laundering.

There was tremendous effort to broker some sort of deal and pressure Noriega to leave.

(narrator) But Noriega isn't going anywhere.

Instead, he tries to bolster his dwindling support, by fanning the flames of anti-American sentiment among his people.

(Orlando J. Prez) I think he believed his own myth of invincibility.

He had survived double-crossing the cartels, double-crossing the CIA, and he thought he was gonna survive.

(narrator) But Noriega faces another challenge within his own borders.

May 7, 1989.

Panamanians go to the polls to elect a new president.

[loud cheering] (narrator) Just like in '84, It appears the opposition is on the verge of victory... Until Noriega steps in and declares his own candidate the winner.

(John Dinges) He just names a president.

So this is Noriega basically throwing the pretense of democracy out the window.

[many people yelling] (narrator) Panama City is engulfed in protests against Noriega and his regime.

[many people yelling] (narrator) He sends in his own paramilitary group, known as the Dignity Battalions, to suppress the protestors.

They beat the opposition vice presidential candidate Guillermo "Billy" Ford unmercifully.

(Orlando J. Prez) You have that famous picture of Billy Ford with his blood soaked [speaks a Spanish word].

Those images were very impactful because the images revealed for the world to see, the brutality of the regime.

(narrator) In the U.S., the pressure mounts on a new President, George H.W.

Bush, to take action.

Noriega's become less useful to the U.S., and Bush is worried about the thousands of American citizens who still live in the Canal Zone.

Bush makes a public demand for Noriega's resignation.

But Noriega isn't listening.

[applause & cheers; Noriega speaks Spanish] The U.S. government pushed him over the edge, and he felt betrayed.

I think he reached a tipping point, he actually broke.

He was no longer really in control of his emotions.

(narrator) Seven months after President Bush orders Noreiga's resignation, his regime condemns the superpower for "insulting Panama's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Noriega said that a state of war was developing between the two countries.

(narrator) He's thumbing his nose at the U.S. and seems to think he can get away with it.

He played a very high-stakes game, in which he defied the U.S. government.

[yelling in Spanish] There was a saying that the United States is like a monkey on a chain-- you can play with the monkey but don't pull the chain too hard, because the monkey's going to bite you.

(narrator) Noriega's threatening behavior has the 40,000 Americans living in Panama on edge.

On December 16, 1989, the tensions finally boil over.

A Panamanian officer fires on an American car when it runs a military checkpoint, and a U.S. marine is killed.

[Rubn Dario Paredes speaks Spanish] I will protect the lives of Americans in Panama, whether they're military or civilian.

We will not let Americans' lives be put at risk by a dictator down here.

(narrator) December 20, 1989.

U.S. troops storm Panama City.

Their mission-- secure the safety of Americans and take down Manuel Noriega.

[loud explosion] [gunfire; people screaming] (Orlando J. Prez) The machete wielding you know, El Man, who had defied the U.S., for so many years, basically goes into hiding.

(Roberto Eisenmann) He did not issue one military order-- not one.

He just ran and ran and ran.

That says a lot about bullies.

All bullies are basically cowards.

(narrator) After resisting U.S. forces on its own for 4 days, the Panamanian Army, vastly outnumbered, is defeated.

The American invasion has left more than a thousand Panamanians, soldiers and civilians, dead.

20,000 are homeless.

And Noriega is still on the run.

On Christmas Eve, he finds desperate refuge in Panama City's Vatican Embassy.

He believed the Vatican Embassy might provide safe haven to allow him to get out into exile someplace.

(narrator) U.S. forces are quickly tipped off, but Noriega refuses to surrender.

Outside, protesters call for his head, taunting him with chants of "Pineapple Face!"

[loud chanting] (narrator) January 3, 1990.

Panama's military dictator surrenders to the U.S., but with one condition.

(John Dinges) He wanted to surrender in uniform, but the United States then did something that was very humiliating.

As soon as Noriega was arrested, they made him take off his uniform and they took a picture of him with a wrinkled T-shirt, Noriega looking like a common criminal.

And that was the picture that they put out around the world to show that Noriega was in custody.

(narrator) After a tumultuous 6 years as Panama's dictator, the boy born with nothing who once had everything, has just lost it all.

(Natasha Ezrow) Noriega was incredibly greedy.

He was not only corrupted by power, but he was also corrupted by greed.

And that ended up being his downfall.

(narrator) In 1992, in Miami, Florida, Manuel Noriega is convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.

He's sentenced to 40 years in prison.

[crowd yelling] (narrator) Panamanians rejoice in the streets.

Noriega spends 25 years in custody in the U.S., France, and in the end... Panama.

In 2017, he dies at the age of 83.

(narrator) At the height of his power Noriega had amassed a fortune estimated at $600 million.

Today, while his estates are crumbling, his country is rebuilding.

(John Dinges) Panama got the canal back in 1999 and they've run it very successfully, very competently.

Panama has become very, very prosperous.

(narrator) The country has held free elections with mostly stable democratic governments since Noriega's arrest.

The abuses of his rule have resulted in a landmark constitutional change: the abolition of the country's military.

(Orlando J. Prez) That has been instrumental to democratic civilian control.

The idea of a coup these days is very far-fetched.

[Rubn Dario Paredes speaks in Spanish] (narrator) Next time on "The Dictator's Playbook"... (Paul Preston) Franco had an idea of the authentic Spain.

It's Catholic, protected property the sanctity of marriage-- all these things were challenged by the left.

Franco believed that he should eliminate the left and their ideology-- anyone who was a socialist, anyone who opposed the church.

(Paul Preston) Franco was someone who had never lost a minute's sleep over the crimes that were committed in his name.

[orchestra plays in minor tones] (man) To order "The Dictator's Playbook" on DVD, visit shopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available on Amazon Prime Video.

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