Noriega Back in Panama, Says Trip Was Just a ‘Trap’

Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega returned to Panama on Sunday after a one-day trip to the Dominican Republic that sparked joyful demonstrations at home by opponents who thought the military strongman was not coming back.

Hours later, Noriega’s army detained Washington Post correspondent Julia Preston as she arrived at the Panama City airport from Nicaragua and told her she was being barred from the country.

The Reagan Administration has pressed Noriega to step down and hold free elections. Richard L. Armitage, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense, met with Noriega here week before last to impress Washington’s views upon him.

In the Dominican Republic, Noriega told the Listin Diario newspaper that his unannounced trip was a ploy to see how the Panamanian opposition and the United States would react.

“It was a trap I set to test their honesty,” he was quoted as saying.

Word of Noriega’s departure from Panama, for what he later called a visit to his son-in-law’s family, sent hundreds of horn-honking, handkerchief-waving Panamanians into the streets of the capital Saturday.

“A rumor started that he wasn’t coming back, and it spread like wildfire,” said Mayin Correa, an opposition legislator.

The military quickly broadcast a statement denying its commander’s resignation and promising his return. The jubilation then turned into the largest anti-government protest in three months. After dark, riot police and army troops fired tear gas and shotguns to disperse the crowds.

Panama’s anti-government Human Rights Committee reported that 34 people were arrested and several wounded.

A military spokesman and an employee at Noriega’s home said the general had returned early Sunday, but he made no public appearance. Dominican President Joaquin Balaguer said Noriega had left his country and had not sought political asylum.

Preston, a Miami-based Post correspondent who covers Central America and has reported extensively on Panama, was denied entry to Panama without explanation, according to a U.S. Embassy official who spoke to her at the airport. She had arrived to cover a conference of Latin American foreign ministers.

The official said he saw two armed security agents put Preston aboard a Miami-bound Eastern Airlines flight. The plane developed mechanical trouble shortly after takeoff and returned Sunday evening, airline officials said.

The Post correspondent, a U.S. citizen, was not listed at any of the Panama City hotels where Eastern passengers were lodged for the night, and embassy officials said they assumed that the military was holding her incommunicado until a later flight. Military officials with knowledge of the case could not be reached for comment.

A civilian aide to Noriega, Renato Pereira, said he was told that Preston was barred for lacking a visa. But this reporter, who arrived with her from Managua, had the same kind of visa, a tourist card, and was allowed to enter the country.