The media have compared Maduro’s removal to Noriega in Panama.
They were both leaders of narco-states that had been set up by the CIA.
But there’s a major difference.
George H.W. Bush was the one behind the removal of Noriega, but most people have no clue why Bush was suddenly desperate to remove Noriega.
“Bush as president invaded Panama and removed Noriega.
But why was Noriega removed and arrested by Bush, who had installed him into power in the first place?
According to The Guardian:
“Noriega, who died on Monday at the age of 83, was right to be nervous. The October coup attempt marked a turning point in Washington’s attitude to a man whose rise to power it had assisted, who became a valued CIA cold war asset and go-between in Central America’s dirty wars, but who turned into a monster US spy bosses could no longer control. Noriega had outlived his usefulness. Now he was an embarrassment. So Bush made him America’s most wanted.
Human rights and security aside, Bush had plenty of personal reasons for wanting Noriega out of the way. As CIA director and two-term vice-president to Ronald Reagan prior to 1988, Bush was implicated, by association, in often illegal, covert interventions in the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. During this period, Noriega, who rose to head the Panamanian security forces, became a highly paid informant and CIA “asset”.
Noriega helped the US to combat Cuban, and thus Soviet, influence in the region. He acted as an intermediary with US-backed contra rebels fighting Daniel Ortega’s leftwing Sandinista government and with the Salvadoran government and rebels. Death squads, random killings and torture characterised these murderous conflicts. Noriega was also closely associated with the Colombian Medellin drug cartel of Pablo Escobar.”
“Bush had trained and installed Noriega as a dictator in Panama for the very purpose of being a conduit for cocaine trafficking through the Medellin cartel. They were using Panamanian airfields to fly weapons to the Contras and drugs into the U.S.
More from The Guardian:”
“Funds from drug trafficking were used to buy arms, pay fighters and suborn government officials. Noriega later claimed it was his refusal to help Lt Col Oliver North provide arms for the contra rebels in Nicaragua that triggered the US decision to drop him. North was the White House’s infamous covert operations pointman and a central figure in the Iran-contra scandal that shook the Reagan presidency.
Noriega’s knowledge of US operations in Central America was detailed and highly compromising. He was said to have met Bush in person on more than one occasion.
It is clear that each US government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing. Noriega was allowed to establish “the hemisphere’s first narco-kleptocracy”.”
“The CIA didn’t turn a blind eye to Noriega’s drug trafficking, they encouraged it.
It was only when Congress was investigating the Iran-Contra scandal that Noriega became a huge liability and had to be removed.
More from The Guardian:”
“The court refused to allow Noriega’s defence to present any evidence relating to his work for the CIA, his payments from the US government, his knowledge of US subversion in Central America, his contacts with senior figures such as Bush, and their knowledge of his activities as Panama’s dictator. His lawyers protested, but in vain. In many respects, the Miami proceedings resembled an east European show trial, with the outcome never in doubt.
Bush got his man, Noriega was silenced, nefarious US behaviour in Central America was effectively concealed, and the concept of justified, forcible regime change was fatefully reinforced.”
“Noriega had been a big puppet for the CIA in the beginning, but then became a liability, so he was removed.”
Noriega was “silenced.”
Maduro is going to be “talking.”
Huge difference.
My article on Bush’s destruction of Central America:
open.substack.com/pub/badlands/p…
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