The U.S. this week announced that it was extraditing Manuel Noriega to France instead of Panama, a decision that “leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” said La Estrella de Panamá in an editorial. When our former dictator, arrested in a U.S. invasion in 1990 and convicted of drug trafficking and racketeering, finished serving his sentence in a Miami prison in 2007, both France and Panama requested his extradition. France had convicted him in absentia of laundering more than $3 million in drug profits by buying French real estate. But Panama also convicted him in absentia of money laundering—as well as of “vastly more serious crimes,” including corruption, embezzlement, and even ordering the murder of political opponents. “The Americans’ motives are not very clear.” Do they simply “care more about Europeans than about Panamanians?” Whatever the reason, the decision has cost us our chance at justice. Noriega is 76, and he could serve up to 10 years in French prison. The nation he once plundered and oppressed will probably never see him again.
If so, it will be our own fault, said Melquisedec Quintero in Panama’s El Siglo. Why isn’t the Panamanian government making a fuss? Noriega himself wanted to spend his last years here at home, where he could serve out his sentence under house arrest. That would also mean “answering for crimes committed in this country.” He spent the past three years fighting the extradition to France in U.S. courts, but lost—even though international law “ought to give priority to Panama’s request” over France’s. Yet this week Noriega was flown to Paris, and our government simply shrugged. Vice President Juan Carlos Varela said Panama “respects the decision” to send Noriega away.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Should Australians boycott the U.S.?feature After the drive-by shooting of Chris Lane, a former Deputy Prime Minister is calling on Australians to avoid the U.S. until it tightens its gun laws.
-
Supporting Egypt’s generals
feature The worst violence since Mubarak was toppled in 2011 was met with what amounted to a shrug from the U.S.
-
How they see us: CIA agents overrun Pakistan
feature Pakistanis are furious at the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor.
-
WikiLeaks exposes U.S. war crimes
feature The U.S. military logs from the Afghan conflict recently made public by WikiLeaks reveal a staggering toll of innocent lives.
-
How they see us: Suddenly noticing Mexico’s drug war
feature With the deaths of two Americans killed by drug dealers in Juárez, the U.S. finally feels the weight of Mexico's drug war, a war fueled primarily by U.S. weapons and the U.S. market for drugs.
-
Labeling Mexico a ‘failed state’
feature More than 6,000 people were murdered in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and at least three major Mexican cities are now policed by the army.
-
How they see us: A presidency defined by arrogance
feature “Around the world the Bush name is synonymous with arrogance, ignorance, reckless insouciance, torture, violence, and ineptitude,” said Gerard Baker in Britain’s The Times.