2 Noriega Cohorts Exit Embassy : Panama: U.S. detains senior officers as half a dozen other fugitives remain inside.

U.S. forces detained two senior Panamanian military officers as they left the Vatican Embassy in Panama City where their former commander, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, remains holed up, a U.S. military spokesman said today.

They are navy commander Col. Arnulfo Castrejon and armed forces chaplain Lt. Col. Carlos Velardes, Southern Command spokesman Col. Jerry Murgia told a news conference. “They remain in U.S. custody,” he said.

Panama Archbishop Marcus McGrath said about half a dozen other fugitives remain in the embassy with Noriega.

“The obvious intention is to arrive at a moment where he will be the only person living inside the Vatican Embassy. It should happen today or tomorrow,” he told reporters.

The two officers who left the nunciature were on the armed forces general staff and Castrejon was a member of the Military Strategic Council, a select group of officers close to Noriega.

Murgia said the two had been arrested in the last 24 hours but did not say how long they had been in the nunciature. Castrejon was previously reported to have surrendered to the U.S. Army and Murgia did not explain the discrepancy.

He said that another member of Noriega’s general staff, Lt. Col. Rafael Cedeno, the deputy director of military intelligence, had surrendered in the last 24 hours.

Spanish state radio said today that two senior Panamanian officers who took refuge inside the nunciature with Noriega have asked for political asylum in Spain.

It identified them as the former director of the National Department of Investigation, Lt. Col. Nivaldo Madrinan, and Noriega’s personal security chief, Capt. Eliecer Gaitan.

Spanish Foreign Minister Francisco Fernandez Ordonez told the radio that if no lawsuit is pending against the officers there should not be any problem for them to settle in Spain.

But he said their biggest difficulty would be whether U.S. troops surrounding the mission would allow them to pass.

The standoff at the Vatican Embassy, where Noriega took refuge from invading U.S. troops on Christmas Eve, continued with troops and tanks ringing the building in the seaside Paitilla district of Panama City.

U.S. troops, adopting a novel way of reminding the fugitive of their presence, play rock music and news reports on the standoff at high volume over a loudspeaker.

Washington has threatened to seize Noriega and send him to the United States to face drug charges if he sets foot outside the sanctuary of the embassy. But the White House acknowledged today that the resolution to the standoff is in the Vatican’s hands.

The Vatican has ruled out turning Noriega over to the United States and diplomats say it is seeking to hand him over to Panama or a third country.

McGrath said a solution to the Noriega problem would have to satisfy the minimum positions of all parties involved. “Whatever time needs to be taken should be taken, otherwise the decision will be hasty and destructive,” he said.