Manuel Noriega, believed to be born in 1934, general and former dictator of Panama (1983-1989). Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was born in Panama City. After studying on a scholarship at the Chorrillos Military Academy in Lima, Peru, Noriega returned to Panama and was commissioned a sublieutenant in the National Guard. Close to military strongman Omar Torrijos Herrera, Noriega advanced quickly and was appointed chief of military intelligence when Torrijos seized power after a coup in 1968. After Torrijos died in an airplane crash in 1981, Noriega became chief of staff to General Rubén Darío Paredes, head of the National Guard. Succeeding Paredes in 1983, Noriega promoted himself to general and gained effective control of Panama’s government.

Noriega increased the size and power of the military, giving it control over much of Panama’s government and economy. Under his rule, political repression and corruption became widespread. Noriega was accused of ordering the 1985 murder of a prominent critic of the military, Hugo Spadafora, but when Panamanian president Nicolás Ardito Barletta tried to investigate, Noriega removed Ardito Barletta from office.

In 1986 allegations emerged that Noriega was involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and acting as a double agent for both the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Cuba’s intelligence agency. Panamanians staged protests demanding Noriega’s resignation, and he responded by cracking down on civil liberties in 1987. The U.S. Senate urged the government of Panama to remove Noriega from office and investigate his activities, and the United States suspended aid to Panama. In 1988 a U.S. grand jury in Florida indicted Noriega on charges of violating racketeering and drug laws and money laundering. The United States put greater economic and diplomatic pressure on Panama to force Noriega from power, while protests and violence within Panama increased. In December 1989 U.S. forces invaded Panama and arrested Noriega, who was taken to Florida to stand trial.

The trial began in 1991, with Noriega’s attorneys arguing that much of his wealth came not from illegal activities but from the CIA, for which Noriega had long been an informant. In April 1992 Noriega was found guilty of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, marking the first time in history that a U.S. jury had convicted a foreign head of state of criminal charges. He was sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison.

Noriega was due to be released from a U.S. federal prison in September 2007, but in August of that year a federal district court judge approved his extradition to France upon the completion of his sentence in the United States. In 1999 Noriega was convicted in absentia by a French court on a charge of money laundering. As he neared the end of his U.S. sentence, French authorities sought his extradition so that he could serve a possible ten-year sentence in France. Noriega was also convicted in absentia by Panamanian courts of ordering the murder of Spadafora and also that of an army officer. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for each of those crimes. Panama also sought Noriega’s extradition, but that request was rejected by a U.S. court. Under a recent Panamanian law, Noriega would have been able to serve out his sentence under house arrest because he was over 70 years old. Noriega’s lawyers were expected to appeal the decision allowing his extradition to France.