WORLD : Quayle Presses for Noriega Ouster
GUATEMALA CITY — Vice President Dan Quayle underscored U.S. insistence that Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega step down soon and urged Guatemalan leaders to promote that goal, Bush Administration officials said today.
Guatemalan government officials told Quayle in a meeting Sunday night about a new Organization of American States plan to pressure Noriega from power. But Administration sources said U.S. officials are worried that the military chief may try to hang on while a national reconciliation effort in Panama is under way.
Quayle met with Guatemalan Foreign Minister Mario Palencia on the eve of Palencia’s departure today for Panama as part of an OAS team that is seeking to negotiate a solution to the Panamanian quagmire.
Palencia told Quayle “there was a new plan, a new formula, that was being applied, in the thus far unsuccessful effort to remove Noriega,” who has been indicted by U.S. grand juries on drug-trafficking charges, said an official traveling with Quayle.
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