U.S. to Step Up Effort to Drive Out Noriega : Panamanian Urged by Shultz to Accept Spurned Exile Plan

The Reagan Administration, taken aback by Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega’s rejection of its offer of a comfortable exile, plans to increase economic and political pressure against Panama to force the general out of power, officials said Sunday.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the Administration’s offer to ease Noriega into exile in Spain is still on the table and warned the Panamanian dictator to take the deal while he still can.

“What he has to do is leave, and he should settle quickly before the opportunity that is here before him, to go to Spain, should disappear,” Shultz said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

“I do think now he has the opportunity to make a semi-graceful exit,” he added.

‘The Sooner, the Better’

“The sooner he makes it, the better for Panama, the better for the Panamanian Defense Forces. He would have an airplane that would take him there, and the Spaniards are ready to receive him.”

Other officials said the United States is now concentrating on widening the evident splits in Panama’s armed forces in hopes of driving Noriega out of power through an officers’ revolt.

Several senior officers in the Panamanian Defense Forces have turned against Noriega in the last two weeks, including a group led by the chief of the National Police that attempted a coup last Wednesday but failed.

Two of Noriega’s personal pilots also defected to the United States. One of them, Maj. Augusto Villalaz, said on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley” that he flew three shipments of weapons from Cuba to Panama and estimated that Noriega had attempted to import 500,000 pounds of arms.

Noriega’s ‘Weapon Power’

“He’s fairly secure because he has the main places in the (country) with the weapon power . . . the military weight,” Villalaz said.

“We are ratcheting up the pressure,” a senior State Department official said. “Some guys very close to Noriega (in the military) have turned against him. The question is going to become whether he wants to leave peacefully, or whether it turns bloody.”

But the officials acknowledged that Noriega appeared more intent on remaining in power than they had hoped and said that the general appeared to be digging in his heels for a test of wills with Panama’s civilian opposition and the United States.

“He is a tough individual,” said President Reagan’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, who was interviewed on the same ABC broadcast as Villalaz. “He will take every opportunity available to him to stay in power.”

Confirmed Weapons Stockpile

Powell confirmed reports that Noriega has stockpiled Cuban-supplied weapons at several locations in Panama and said that the action raised the possibility that the general and his followers intend to go down fighting.

“Perhaps he’s thinking of some sort of insurgency after he is removed from power, or perhaps they are intended for other parts of Central America,” Powell said.

The Administration offered Noriega a deal last week under which the general would retire and go into exile in Spain in exchange for assurances that he would not be extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering charges.

Two federal grand juries in Florida indicted Noriega last month on charges that he had turned Panama into a financial haven for cocaine traffickers. Earlier this month, in response to a U.S. request, Spain publicly offered Noriega political asylum--a status that would protect him from extradition under Spanish law.

Safe Passage

The United States also offered to arrange a safe passage out of Panama on a U.S. Air Force jet--the same way two other dictators, the Philippines’ Ferdinand E. Marcos and Haiti’s Jean-Claude Duvalier, left office in 1986.

Noriega invited two State Department officials to Panama City to discuss the proposal last week, but when the diplomats arrived, the general flatly dismissed their offer. Instead, while he did offer to step down as Panama’s military commander, Noriega announced that he intended to stay in Panama and demanded that the Administration quash the indictments against him.

“We really told him that this was his last, best chance to get out with his skin,” said one official familiar with the talks. “He came right back with his own position.”

The State Department envoys, William G. Walker and Michael G. Kozak, found Noriega “wan and tired and nervous” in their first meeting but “more vigorous” in their second session, the official said.

Not Dealing With Reality

“He presented his position in a very professional way. There were no harangues, although he did get indignant once or twice. . . . But the main problem was that he just hasn’t come to realize that his support is gone,” the official said.

The State Department envoys told Noriega that, by leaving office now, he could ensure an orderly departure that would give his followers time to either go into exile or arrange to stay in Panama.

“Otherwise, we told him, you’re going to look like (ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio) Somoza or Marcos, abandoning the people who have followed you to their fates,” the official said.

“What we are offering is something that depends on his statesmanship,” the official said. “That is not a quality he is known for, though.”

New Sanctions Possible

Administration officials plan to meet this week to consider new economic and diplomatic sanctions that may help spur Noriega to reconsider his refusal to leave, State Department officials said.

The Administration has been pressing for Noriega’s ouster since last June, when the Civic Crusade, an opposition movement among Panama’s business and industrial leaders, organized to try to return the country to civilian rule.

After Noriega was indicted by the United States, his handpicked figurehead civilian president, Eric A. Delvalle, called on him to withdraw from politics. Noriega responded by having the National Assembly fire Delvalle, prompting the United States to impose a series of economic measures that have crippled Panama’s economy.

The sanctions have halted the flow of U.S. dollars into Panama, touching off a sudden shortage of cash, which has prompted all local banks to close. Panama uses the U.S. dollar as its national currency.

State Department officials said they expect Noriega’s regime to face twin crises this week. A general business and commercial strike has been called by the Civic Crusade for today, which is also the regularly scheduled payday for Panama’s 15,000 military men. It is not known whether that the government has enough to pay all personnel, the officials added.