Noriega Says He’s Fighting U.S. Bid to Control Panama

Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel A. Noriega today was quoted as saying that he would really rather be somewhere else but that he is fighting an American attempt to control Panama.

“Ah yes,” Noriega was quoted as telling the Paris newspaper Le Monde in an interview published today. “I would like to be somewhere else.” He did not say where.

Although Noriega is ready to leave Panama, the newspaper said, he is not ready to be pushed out.

“Foreigners have trouble understanding our mentality,” Noriega said. “It is a struggle that we have been waging for a long time against the American presence here. It is not a personal fight, but that of a people and a nation. It is the destiny of a country that is at stake.”

Le Monde said Noriega, who has been indicted in the U.S. on drug charges, is convinced that President Reagan, who always opposed the 1977 treaties turning over the Panama Canal to Panama, wants to reclaim the canal.

“The attitude of the United States is very suspect,” the general said.

He brushed aside questions about his role in the drug trade.

“The problem is not here,” he said. “It is in the United States. The United States is the consumer country. It is there that the drugs are paid for. There are drug-producing countries and there are consumer countries. The other countries, like Panama, are passage routes.”