Noriega Promised Freedom to Rebels : Leaders Are Shot; U.S. Sealed Roads During Uprising

Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega foiled Tuesday’s coup attempt by persuading the rebels who held him captive that the effort was hopeless and by promising them safety if they surrendered, U.S. officials said Thursday.

After gaining his release, officials now believe, Noriega had the coup leaders shot, possibly after they were tortured.

Administration officials, under intense pressure to explain U.S. inaction during what critics called a “golden opportunity” to drive Noriega from power, provided additional details of the abortive plot. They also admitted far greater knowledge about the failed coup than previously acknowledged.

Flew Over Blocked Roads

And they said that U.S. troops had sealed off roads leading to Noriega’s headquarters while the coup attempt was in progress, although the action was described as part of a “previously scheduled exercise.” Noriega’s troops hopscotched over the blocked roads in a Boeing 727 and several smaller aircraft and quickly retook the military compound from the insurgents.

Conservative critics allege that the coup leaders offered to hand Noriega over to U.S. forces in Panama but that overcautious American officials declined to take him.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney called the charge “hogwash.” He said that until the collapse of the coup, American officials suspected that the rebellion was a “set-up” to drag the United States into a bloody and embarrassing clash with Panamanian forces.

Cheney on Thursday assumed the role of Administration point man on the Panamanian crisis, trying in a round of media interviews and congressional briefings to explain what U.S. officials knew about the coup and why they decided not to intervene on behalf of the rebellious officers.

He said that the Administration was suspicious of the officers who launched the coup and lacked accurate intelligence on the fast-unfolding drama within the Panamanian military headquarters, located less than half a mile from the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command.

A Risk of Casualties

“You had a lot of confusion and you are not going to commit U.S. troops and put them in harm’s way, risk a very real possibility of casualties (without) a very clear objective and knowledge of the situation and control over the situation,” Cheney said.

The coup plotters alerted U.S. military officers in Panama to the impending coup Sunday night but indicated that they would not attack the Panamanian military headquarters if Noriega were present. However, the actual fighting began Tuesday morning when Noriega arrived at the gates of the compound.

There were conflicting versions of several key events in the brief insurrection. Perhaps most contentious was the question of whether the rebels offered to turn Noriega over to the American military in Panama.

The defense secretary vigorously disputed allegations by critics, led by conservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who said that the Administration had blown a chance to force Noriega to leave Panama and face drug charges in the United States.

Helms, in a chronology of the coup compiled by his staff, said that “the opposition troops in Panama had Noriega in captivity for five hours and were anxious to turn him over to the United States for trial but received not the slightest encouragement from U.S. officials.”

Told of Helms’ charges, Cheney retorted: “Fundamentally untrue. They made it clear that they would not turn him over to us.” Later Cheney added: “Any charge that we were somehow offered Noriega and didn’t take him is hogwash.”

According to the Administration version, U.S. officials twice offered to “relieve them (the rebels) of Noriega, take him off their hands,” and twice the rebels refused, saying that they intended to allow the general to retire quietly in Panama.

Cheney and other Pentagon officials also offered a confusing account of what help the rebels sought and how the United States responded.

The coup leaders twice asked Southern Command officers to seal off roads leading to the Panamanian headquarters to block the path of arriving Noriega loyalists--once Sunday night in advance of the insurrection, and again Tuesday during the coup itself, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

Both times, U.S. officials declined to respond to the requests. However, U.S. troops did seal the roads Tuesday as part of the “scheduled exercise.”

Relatives Allegedly Rounded Up

Helms also alleged that the Southern Command had asked the CIA for help in managing the coup but that the intelligence agency had refused. The senator also alleged that Noriega loyalists rounded up the wives and mothers of the coup plotters and threatened to execute them unless the rebels surrendered. Neither claim could be confirmed.

Here, based on current and sometimes contradictory accounts, is how the abortive coup unfolded: On Sunday night, one of the coup leaders placed a call to the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command to warn that a coup would be undertaken Monday morning. The caller asked that U.S. troops block access roads to the Panamanian Defense Forces compound and provide sanctuary for the family of the coup leader, Maj. Moises Giroldi Vega, on the U.S. military base.

Brig. Gen. Marc Cisneros, commander of U.S. Army South, relayed to Washington a key condition dictated by the coup-makers: The insurrection would not proceed if Noriega were present at Defense Forces headquarters. Once the coup began Tuesday morning, that information caused Washington to question the reliability of the rebels and their claim that they held Noriega.

Giroldi’s involvement in the proposed coup raised serious concerns throughout the U.S. government, according to U.S. defense officials. Giroldi, the head of Noriega’s inner circle of security forces, had been a key figure in suppressing a coup in March, 1988.

“The gentleman who was plotting the coup was the confidant of Noriega’s,” Cheney said. “There was real doubt at the outset that this was a legitimate report of a coup. There was a very real possibility that this was a set-up, that it was an effort by Noriega to draw us in and create an embarrassing incident for the United States.”

Granted Protection to Family

The American response was noncommittal, according to Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams. While the United States “as a humanitarian gesture,” granted Giroldi’s family protection on Ft. Clayton, it was less firm in its response to the request to place troops to block critical reinforcement routes.

“We never gave them an answer on that basis. We had forces in position; we could have done it,” Cheney said.

As it turned out, Pentagon officials said, Washington was never forced to make the decision that would place U.S. troops in the path of Noriega’s reinforcements. The Panamanian 7th Infantry airlifted its soldiers over the heads of U.S. troops.

As Monday morning dawned, the promised coup did not materialize. The silence in Panama City stirred deeper doubt in Washington about Giroldi’s involvement. On Monday afternoon, the coup-makers notified Cisneros that the attempt was on for Tuesday morning.

‘Preplanned Exercises’

At 4 a.m. Tuesday, reveille sounded at Ft. Clayton and U.S. troops scrambled to get their gear for what Williams called a series of “preplanned exercises” designed to demonstrate U.S. treaty rights to unrestricted movement in Panama. Shortly after 8 a.m., when the first vehicles began rolling off U.S. bases, shooting began at Defense Forces headquarters.

At 11:10 a.m., the rebels announced over the radio that they were “retiring” Noriega and other senior Panamanian officers.

At 11:18 a.m., two Defense Forces officers and three enlisted men who said they were involved in the coup arrived at the front gate of Ft. Clayton, asking to speak with Cisneros.

The two officers reported that Noriega and his staff were under the control of the rebel forces, adding that this was an act by middle-grade officers and was not part of a general political uprising.

“They said it was important not to have any incident or confrontation between U.S. forces and those in charge of the coup, “ Williams reported. “They said three times, or at least twice, in the conversation, ‘We want you to stay out of it,’ ” he added.

Cisneros asked them to bring Noriega to Ft. Clayton, stressing that U.S. troops were not authorized to enter the Defense Forces building and seize him. The Panamanian officers declined.

As the Americans and the Panamanians were talking, the coup began unraveling. Noriega loyalists encircled the compound and began lobbing mortar shells inside, as U.S. observer helicopters hovered overhead.

Helms said that loyalists did not enter for fear that Noriega, held captive inside, would be harmed. Instead, Helms said, Noriega’s intelligence unit, the Department of Investigations, rounded up the families of the rebels, forcing them to telephone the leaders of the coup inside.

“The message of the women was simple,” said Helms. “Please surrender, or we will be killed.”

Defense officials did not confirm Helms’ account. But Cheney said that after Noriega had been held for four or five hours, he “talked his way out.”

Noriega said on Panamanian television Thursday that he faced down his captors and persuaded them to surrender.

“I told them they would be attacked (by loyalist troops),” the general said, grinning. “I was not about to hide. I told them I would be there until they handed me their weapons--either that or we would all die.”

A Panamanian military source said Thursday that Noriega, even though surrounded and not in control of the situation, “never acted like a hostage. He was talking to them (his captors) and negotiating the whole time.”

On Thursday, American intelligence officials remained uncertain of what had happened next. On the Senate floor, Helms said that after persuading Giroldi’s troops to lay down their arms, Noriega “personally shot the man.”

Sudden Volley of Gunfire

Intelligence officials confirm that several hours after the shooting stopped, a sudden volley of gunfire broke the silence, possibly marking the death of Giroldi and perhaps some of his co-conspirators.

But a Panamanian military source disputed reports of any summary execution. He said that Giroldi died in combat. Another coup plotter, Capt. Javier Licona, escaped to Ft. Clayton when it became clear that Noriega’s troops were gaining the upper hand, the source said.

Times staff writers Robin Wright and Doyle McManus contributed to this story.