• Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was born on February 11, 1934, in Panama City.
• He was born the son of an accountant and his maid — at the age of five he was given up for adoption to a schoolteacher.
• He is a former Panamanian politician and soldier — he was military governor of Panama from 1983 to 1989.
• He studied at the Military School of Chorrillos in Lima, Peru — he also received intelligence and counterintelligence training at Fort Gulick in 1967 – and also a course in psychological operations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
• He was commissioned in the Panama National Guard in 1967 and promoted to lieutenant in 1968.
• He received a promotion to lieutenant colonel and was appointed chief of military intelligence by Torrijos.
• Noriega worked with the CIA from the late 1950s until the 1980s.
• In 1983, Noriega unified the armed forces into the Panamanian Defence Forces, promoted himself to the rank of general and became de facto leader of Panama.
• In 1989, Noriega cancelled the presidential elections and attempted to rule through a puppet government.
• It has been alleged that he was part of the military coup that removed Arnulfo Arias from power.
• Noriega had earned a reputation as the most feared man in the country.
• Later in 1989, when the US invaded Panama, Noriega was removed from power and detained as a prisoner of war.
• Alleging involvement in drug trafficking, the US authorities ordered his arrest in 1989 and 13,000 US troops invaded Panama to support the 12,000 already there. He surrendered in January 1990, and was taken to the USA for trial.
• Noriega finally surrendered in January 1990.
• He was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992.
• He not only refused to relinquish power, but also engaged in election fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, espionage against the United States and even murder.
• He was found guilty in 1992 and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.
— Compiled by Elisar Sasso, an intern at Gulf News
