U.S. Orchestrated Plot on Noriega : Envoy Drew Panamanian President Into the Secret Plan

Whatever the final outcome of Thursday’s dramatic move against Panama’s military strongman, Manuel Antonio Noriega, it was an operation planned and orchestrated by the United States as a calculated risk. If Gen. Noriega is indeed ousted as the commander of the armed forces, President Reagan will be able to claim it as a victory for the United States’ advocacy of democracy in Latin America. If the enterprise fails, Panama will be the latest crisis to blow up in the face of the Reagan Administration.

At his news conference Wednesday, the President was asked whether U.S. prosecution of Noriega on drug-trafficking charges would be dropped if he voluntarily stepped down and went into exile. Reagan replied, “What we would like to see is a return to democracy and a civilian government in Panama, and not this domination by literally a military dictator.”

In fact, President Reagan was fully aware that Panama’s President Eric Arturo Delvalle planned to announce Noriega’s dismissal Thursday afternoon. I was told by American and Panamanian personalities deeply engaged in the anti-Noriega conspiracy that even as Reagan spoke in Washington Wednesday night, Delvalle was at home in Panama drafting the text of the proclamation relieving the general of his command.

The planning for Noriega’s ouster was set in motion on Feb. 5, when two grand juries in Florida indicted the military chief on charges of drug trafficking and racketeering. Key officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department had concluded that the indictments would only harden Noriega’s resolve to stay in power, and that a careful scenario was therefore necessary to cause his downfall.

A few hours before the indictments were unsealed in Florida, U.S. Ambassador Arthur H. Davis called on Delvalle to give him advance notice of the indictments’ contents. Davis then sounded him out on the possibility of challenging Noriega head on if the United States offered full guarantees of support to the president and his family. Delvalle was in effect a figurehead chief of state, and wouldn’t normally be disposed to defy the powerful general.

The Americans pursued this track through further contacts with Delvalle, and with Noriega’s predecessor as the Defense Forces’ chief, Gen. Ruben Paredes, and other military and civilian officials in Panama. Ambassador Davis and Gen. Frederick F. Woerner, the head of the Panama-based U.S. Southern Command, were crucial players in the undertaking. The principal consideration was to maintain absolute secrecy until Delvalle was ready to speak out publicly; Noriega had to be taken totally by surprise.

The Reagan Administration decided to force out Noriega through what amounted to a coup because both U.S. prestige and security had become involved in the Panamanian situation. Having accused Noriega not only of criminal offenses on a grand scale, but also of betrayal of his American friends in sensitive intelligence matters through his confidential contacts with Cuba, the Administration simply could not afford to let the general stay in power.

Until last December, Washington was prepared to manage matters gently. Thus the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Richard L. Armitage, flew down to Panama to try to persuade Noriega to step down quietly. The general haughtily refused (the Florida jury indictments conceivably might have been quashed had Noriega agreed), and confrontation was the only road that the Reagan Administration saw open.

Now security concerns loomed high. Noriega was suspected of playing on Panamanian nationalism in order to interfere in some fashion with the operation of the Panama Canal, pending its full transfer to Panamanian ownership 12 years from now. Under the 1977 canal treaty, the United States is to retain its military presence--now 10,000 troops--in Panama until the year 2000. But immediately after the Florida indictments, Noriega publicly demanded that the U.S. Southern Command be expelled immediately. With the canal now a ploy in the war with Noriega, around Feb. 12 the decision was taken at the White House to proceed with the general’s ouster.

President Delvalle agreed a week ago to broadcast his dismissal of Noriega. But Noriega’s soldiers control access to most television and radio operations in Panama.

Early Thursday morning, Delvalle drove to the residence of the Papal Nuncio in Panama, apparently making a courtesy visit. Once inside, Delvalle proceeded to record his proclamation on video tape and voice cassettes.

Meanwhile, Delvalle’s family had been taken to safety under U.S. protection. The president reportedly remained with the Vatican ambassador, the dean of the diplomatic corps in Panama, while trusted messengers delivered the tapes to at least one friendly station for broadcast at 3 p.m., local time. Apparently Noriega heard the news along with everyone else in Panama.

At this writing Thursday night, the situation in Panama was unsettled. Still, moving against Noriega was Ronald Reagan’s great foreign-policy initiative--an initiative still in the balance.