The United States invasion of Panama began in mid-December 1989 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. The purpose of the invasion was to depose the de facto ruler of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by U.S. authorities for racketeering and drug trafficking. The operation, codenamed Operation Just Cause, concluded in late January 1990 with the surrender of Noriega. The Panama Defense Forces (PDF) were dissolved, and president-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office.
Noriega, who had longstanding ties to United States intelligence agencies, consolidated power to become Panama's de facto dictator in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, relations between Noriega and the U.S. began to deteriorate due to fallout from the murder of Hugo Spadafora and the resignation of President Nicolas Ardito Barletta. His criminal activities and association with other spy agencies came to light, and in 1988 he was indicted by federal grand juries on several drug-related charges. Negotiations seeking his resignation, which began under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, were ultimately unsuccessful. In 1989, Noriega annulled the results of the Panamanian general elections, which appeared to have been won by opposition candidate Guillermo Endara; President Bush responded by reinforcing the U.S. garrison in the Canal Zone. Following the declaration of a state of war between Panama and the United States passed by the Panamanian general assembly, as well as the lethal shooting of a Colombia-born U.S. Marine officer Lt. Robert Paz at a PDF roadblock, Bush authorized the execution of the Panama invasion plan.
On December 20, the U.S. invasion of Panama began. Panamanian forces were rapidly overwhelmed, although operations continued for several weeks. Endara was sworn in as president shortly after the start of the invasion. Noriega eluded capture for several days before seeking refuge in the Holy See diplomatic mission in Panama City. He surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was then flown to the U.S., where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The Pentagon estimated that 516 Panamanians were killed during the invasion, including 314 soldiers and 202 civilians. A total of 23 U.S. soldiers and 3 U.S. civilians were killed. The United Nations General Assembly, the Organization of American States and the European Parliament condemned the invasion as a violation of international law. Meanwhile, the United States government cited a responsibility to protect American citizens residing in Panama, along with a need to enforce democracy and human rights, as rationale for the invasion.
Some researchers have argued that it was the first major U.S. military action since 1945 not related to the Cold War, framing it as an early precursor to unilateral interventions in an emerging world order with an emphasis on public opinion, international legitimacy, operational execution, and regime change.
Background
In the late 20th century, the United States had maintained numerous military bases and a substantial garrison throughout the Canal Zone to protect and maintain American control of the strategically important Panama Canal. On September 7, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the de facto leader of Panama, General Omar Torrijos, signed the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which set in motion the process of handing over the canal to Panamanian control by 2000. Although the canal was destined for Panamanian administration, the military bases remained, and one condition of the transfer was that the canal would remain open to American shipping. The U.S. had long-standing relations with Torrijos' successor, General Manuel Noriega, who served as a U.S. intelligence asset: he was a paid informant for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1967, including the period when George H. W. Bush was director of the agency (1976–77).
Noriega had sided with the U.S. rather than the Soviet Union in Central America, notably in sabotaging the forces of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, and the revolutionaries of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador. Noriega received upward of $100,000 per year from the CIA from the 1960s until the 1980s, when his salary was increased to $200,000 per year. Although he worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to restrict illegal drug shipments, Noriega was known to simultaneously accept significant financial support from drug dealers and facilitate the laundering of drug money. These drug dealers received protection from DEA investigations due to Noriega's special relationship with the CIA.
In the mid-1980s, relations between Noriega and the U.S. began to deteriorate. In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan opened negotiations with Noriega, requesting that the Panamanian leader step down after his criminal activities were publicly exposed in The New York Times by Seymour Hersh. Reagan pressured Noriega with several drug-related indictments in U.S. courts; however, since extradition laws between Panama and the U.S. were weak, Noriega deemed this threat not credible and did not submit to Reagan's demands. In 1988, Elliott Abrams and others in the Pentagon began pushing for a U.S. invasion. Reagan refused due to Bush's ties to Noriega through his previous positions in the CIA and their potentially negative impact on Bush's presidential campaign. Later negotiations involved dropping the drug-related indictments.
In March 1988, Noriega's forces resisted an attempted coup d'etat against his regime. As relations continued to deteriorate, Noriega appeared to shift his Cold War allegiance toward the Soviet bloc, soliciting and receiving military aid from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Libya. U.S. military planners began preparing contingency plans to invade Panama.
In September 1988, Panamanian authorities reported that they had arrested 16 people on suspicion of plotting another coup d'état. Twelve of the conspirators were alleged to be part of the "National Patriotic Committee," a U.S.-supported guerrilla group that sought to oust Noriega. Panamanian newspaper Critica claimed that the plot had been financed by the United States.
In May 1989, during the Panamanian national elections, an alliance of parties opposed to the Noriega regime counted results from the country's election precincts, before they were sent to the district centers. Their tally showed their candidate, Guillermo Endara, defeating Carlos Duque, candidate of a pro-Noriega coalition, by nearly 3–1. Endara was physically assaulted by Noriega supporters the next day in his motorcade. Noriega declared the election null and maintained power by force, making him unpopular among Panamanians. Noriega's regime insisted that it had won the presidential election and that irregularities had been on the part of U.S.-backed candidates from opposition parties. President Bush called on Noriega to honor the will of the Panamanian people while the U.S. reinforced its Canal Zone garrison, and increased the tempo of training and other activities intended to put pressure on Noriega.
In October 1989, Noriega foiled another coup attempt by members of the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), led by Major Moisés Giroldi. On December 15, the Panamanian general assembly passed a resolution declaring that a state of war existed between Panama and the United States.
On the night following the war declaration, at approximately 9:00 p.m., four U.S. military personnel were stopped at a roadblock outside PDF headquarters in the El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama City. Marine Captain Richard E. Hadded, Navy Lieutenant Michael J. Wilson, Army Captain Barry L. Rainwater, and Marine First Lieutenant Robert Paz had left the U.S. base at Fort Clayton and were on their way to have dinner at the Marriott Caesar Park Hotel in downtown Panama City. The Pentagon reported that the servicemen had been unarmed, were in a private vehicle, and had attempted to flee only after their vehicle was surrounded by an angry crowd of civilians and PDF troops. The PDF asserted later that the Americans were armed and on a reconnaissance mission. The PDF opened fire and Paz was fatally wounded by a round that entered the rear of the vehicle and struck him in the back. Hadded, the driver of the vehicle, was also wounded in the foot. Paz was rushed to Gorgas Army Hospital but died of his wounds; he received the Purple Heart posthumously.
According to U.S. military sources, a U.S. Naval officer, SEAL Lieutenant Adam Curtis, and his wife, Bonnie, witnessed the incident and were detained by PDF troops. While in police custody, Curtis was beaten, and his wife threatened with sexual assault. Curtis spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from the beating. On December 16 Bush ordered the execution of the Panama invasion plan; the military set H-Hour as 0100 on December 20.
Several neighboring governments secretly tried to negotiate a peaceful outcome and Noriega's willing resignation. Presidents Oscar Arias and Daniel Oduber of Costa Rica, Carlos Andrés Pérez of Venezuela, Alfonso López Michelsen of Colombia, and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González all on different occasions met Noriega in secret attempting to convince him to give up power and self-exile himself in Spain, to no avail.
History
U.S. rationale
The official U.S. rationale for the invasion was articulated by President Bush on the morning of December 20, 1989, a few hours after the start of the operation. Bush cited Panama's declaration of a state of war with the United States and attacks on U.S. troops as justification for the invasion.
Bush further identified four objectives of the invasion:
- Safeguarding the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama. In his statement, Bush stated that Noriega had declared that a state of war existed between the U.S. and Panama and had threatened the lives of the approximately 35,000 U.S. citizens living there. There had been numerous clashes between U.S. and Panamanian forces; one U.S. Marine had been killed a few days earlier.
- Defending democracy and human rights in Panama.
- Combating drug trafficking. Panama had become a center for drug money laundering and a transit point for drug trafficking to the U.S. and Europe.
- Protecting the integrity of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties. Members of Congress and others in the U.S. political establishment claimed that Noriega threatened the neutrality of the Panama Canal, and that the U.S. had the right under the treaties to intervene militarily to protect the canal.
U.S. forces were instructed to begin maneuvers and activities within the restrictions of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, such as ignoring PDF roadblocks and conducting short-notice "Category Three" military exercises on security-sensitive targets, with the express goal of provoking PDF soldiers. U.S. SOUTHCOM kept a list of abuses against U.S. servicemen and civilians by the PDF while the orders to incite PDF soldiers were in place.
As for the Panamanian legislature's war declaration, Noriega insisted in his memoirs that this declaration referred to a state of war directed by the U.S. against Panama, in the form of what he claimed were harsh economic sanctions and provocative military maneuvers (Operations Purple Storm and Sand Flea) that were prohibited by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
Bush's four reasons for the invasion provided sufficient justification to establish bipartisan Congressional approval and support. However, the secrecy before the invasion's initiation, the speed and success of the invasion itself, and U.S. public support for it (80% public approval) did not allow Democratic lawmakers to object to Bush's decision to use military force. One contemporary study suggests that Bush decided to invade for domestic political reasons, citing scarce strategic reasoning for the U.S. to invade and immediately withdraw without establishing the structure to enforce the interests that Bush used to justify the invasion.
Operation Just Cause
Involved units and agencies
The U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard participated in Operation Just Cause. Ground forces consisted of:
- combat elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps
- the 82nd Airborne Division
- the 7th Infantry Division (Light)
- the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
- the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne)
- the 75th Ranger Regiment
- the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion
- Tactical Air Control Parties from the 507th and 602nd Tactical Air Control Wings and the 24th Composite Wing
- Combat Controllers from the 1721st Combat Control Squadron
- Pararescuemen from the 1730th Pararescue Squadron.
- a Joint Special Operations Task Force
- elements of the 5th Infantry Division
- 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry Regiment
- 4th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment (replacing 1/61st in September 1989)
- 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne), Fort Bragg North Carolina
- 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne), Fort Bragg
- 21st Military Police Company (Airborne), Fort Bragg
- 65th Military Police Company, Fort Bragg
- 108th Military Police Company (Air Assault), Fort Bragg
- 519th Military Police Battalion
- 1138th Military Police Company, Missouri Army National Guard
- 988th Military Police Company, Fort Benning, Georgia
- 555th Military Police Company, Fort Lee, Virginia
- 534th Combat Military Police, Fort Clayton, Panama
- 193rd Infantry Brigade
- 5th Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment
- 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment
- 8th Ordnance Company (Ammo), Ft Bragg, NC (Select detachment attached to SOUTHCOM)
- Marine Security Forces Battalion Panama,
- Company K, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment
- Marine Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams
- 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
- 2nd Marine Logistics Group 39th Combat Engineer Battalion Co C.
- 511th Military Police Company, Fort Drum, New York
- 9th Infantry Regiment (Fort Ord, California, United States)
- 63rd Security Police Squadron, Norton Air Force Base, California
- 401st Military Police Company, Fort Hood, Texas
Air logistic support was provided by the 22nd Air Force with air assets from the 60th, 62nd, and 63rd military airlift wings.
Operation description
The U.S. invasion of Panama began on December 20, 1989, at 12:46 a.m. local time. The operation involved 27,684 U.S. troops and over 300 aircraft, including C-130 Hercules tactical transports flown by the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing (which was equipped with the Adverse Weather Aerial Delivery System or AWADS) and 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, AC-130 Spectre gunships, OA-37B Dragonfly observation and attack aircraft, C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy strategic transports, F-117A Nighthawk stealth ground-attack aircraft flown by the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The invasion was the first combat deployment for the AH-64, the HMMWV, and the F-117A. Panamanian radar units were jammed by two EF-111As electronic warfare aircraft of the 390th ECS, 366th TFW. These aircraft were deployed against the 16,000 members of the PDF.