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Noriega's old home renovated as homecoming hopes hang in the balance

by Eric Jackson

Theoretically, the Altos de Golf mansion that General Manuel Antonio Noriega once called his own but which has been an abandoned ruin since the 1989 US invasion belongs to the Panamanian people and is held on the public behalf by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The property was expropriated after long procedures that determined that its purchase was the fruit of illegal activity.

Ah, but today's Minister of Economy and Finance, Héctor Alexander, used to be the Noriega dictatorship's Minister of Planning and Economic Policy. And thus there was no objection from the ministry that holds title to the property when on August 18 a work crew supervised by Noriega's lawyer, Julio Berríos, arrived at the house and began to paint, clear weeds and debris and make repairs. Berríos told a reporter for El Panama America that he would file a motion for the house to be returned to the general, claiming that he can prove that Noriega bought it with money he earned as an army officer.

Who's paying for the renovation? Nobody who knows is willing to say, but as the laborers worked one of Noriega's old friends, journalist Escolastico "Fulele" Calvo showed up to watch.

Earlier this year the legislature passed and President Torrijos signed a new Penal Code that provides that prisoners over the age of 70 may serve their time under house arrest. The code doesn't go into effect until next May, but in any case judges and the executive branch already have wide discretion to allow prison time to be served under house arrest and for the few rich who are ever convicted for their crimes that is a common courtesy. Noriega was convicted of many crimes in five trials in absentia, including various counts of torture and murder. He is expected to at some point move for new trials, arguing that procedures in absentia violated his right to due process of law.

However, depending on what happens in a Miami federal courtroom on August 24, it all may become moot. The US Department of Justice has petitioned one federal judge to order Noriega extradited to France, where he faces a 10-year sentence for money laundering, imposed after a trial in absentia in which prosecutors offered evidence that the ex-strongman bought Paris condos with the proceeds of criminal activities. But Noriega's lawyers filed a habeas corpus motion before Judge William Hoeveler, who presided over the trial in which the former dictator was convicted on US drug conspiracy charges but who also held that under international law the general is a prisoner of war entitled to all of the privileges and protections inherent in that status. Because of that ruling, which the US government never appealed, Noriega has been kept in a special facility with mail, telephone and exercise privileges not allowed other federal inmates and is permitted to wear his military uniform and receive periodic visits and packages from the International Red Cross.

Under the Third Geneva Convention that rules the treatment of prisoners of war, a POW who is being punished for a crime nevertheless does not lose the status and protection that the convention affords. France, however, maintains that since it was never at war with Panama Noriega would be treated like any other French prisoner. There is no precedent for the United States handing a POW that it holds over to another nation, although it did turn a number of Russians who were taken prisoner by the Germans during World War II and then became Nazi collaborators over to Soviet authorities (generally to be executed as traitors), and other Axis soldiers taken as prisoners by the United States were haled before international tribunals, the most famous of them in Nuremberg and Tokyo, for trial and in most cases subsequent conviction and punishment. According to Noriega's lawyers in the USA, the Third Geneva Convention requires a POW's repatriation to his or her own country at the end of a sentence for a crime but the treaty nowhere forthrightly says this.

Noriega's release date from his US drug sentence is September 9, with extradition requests from both Panama and France pending. As Panama by its constitution will not extradite its citizens to the United States, there is no mutual extradition treaty binding Washington to hand Noriega over to Panama, but there are bilateral legal assistance agreements and there is a history of this country turning over American citizens wanted for non-tax crimes by US authorities and vice versa.

If Hoeveler rules in Noriega's favor on the habeas corpus motion, that would probably thwart the attempt to extradite him to France. However, there could be appeals in the event of such a ruling and the usual practice is that a prisoner is not released from custody while extradition proceedings are pending.

Noriega's return to Panama would create something of a political crisis for the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), which he once dominated. It's not a matter of the general regaining any power or influence here, but his mere presence is a reminder of ugly things in the party's history. Moreover, if he is treated gently with house arrest or even fewer restrictions this is bound to inflame a sector of the Panamanian population, but if he is treated as a criminal this is likely to offend some of the general's friends who occupy high positions in the government and the PRD. The president and his party would almost certainly suffer a drop in popularity if Noriega returns.

SUNTRACS members killed in government move to smash union
With habeas corpus motion pending, Noriega's house being renovated

Toned down rhetoric, but Cornejo case moves ahead

US denies RP basketball team visas, reverses itself

Mayoral candidates and labor
Panama News Briefs