The United States military invaded Panama on December 20, 1989, during the U.S. presidency of George H. W. Bush. Code-named “Operation Just Cause,” the U.S.’s stated purpose for sending 26,000 troops to invade and overthrow the government of former CIA asset Manuel Antonio Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, was, according to Bush, the “noble goal” of ridding Panama of a president who was also a drug trafficker and racketeer.
“Noriega declared his military dictatorship to be in a state of war with the United States and publicly threatened the lives of Americans in Panama,” Bush asserted when he addressed the nation on the night of the Panama invasion. “The very next day, forces under his command shot and killed an unarmed American serviceman; wounded another; arrested and brutally beat a third American serviceman, and then brutally interrogated his wife, threatening her with sexual abuse. That was enough.
“General Noriega’s reckless threats and attacks upon Americans in Panama created an imminent danger to the 35,000 American citizens in Panama. As president, I have no higher obligation than to safeguard the lives of American citizens. And that is why I directed our Armed Forces to protect the lives of American citizens in Panama and to bring General Noriega to justice in the United States.”
Declassified documents show that Noriega was a CIA asset, documented to have played a role in the fatal plane crash that killed Panama’s military leader General Omar Torrijos. It was Torrijos who had demanded the nationalization of the Panama Canal under the signing of the Carter-Torrijos Treaty of 1977, which saw the U.S. relinquish control of the Panama Canal.
It was not convenient for the United States to have Noriega in power since Noriega knew the whole plot of how cocaine was getting from Colombia to the United States: It was arriving by means of Panama with General Noriega reportedly involved.
An unfortunate incident had occurred between a U.S. Marine and a soldier of the Noriega-created Dignity Battalions that led to the death of the Marine. That tragic incident was enough for the Bush administration to push for the so-called Just Cause invasion under these arguments:
- Protecting the lives of U.S. citizens
- Restoring democracy (they used the same rationale in Haiti in 1994 under the code-name “Operation Uphold Democracy”)
- Re-establishing a U.S.-friendly Panamanian government, to fulfill the Torrijos-Carter pact.
‘Operation Just Cause’ massacred Afro Panamanians in the El Chorrillo neighborhood
On December 20, 1989, 26,000 special forces soldiers attacked the Afro Panamanian neighborhoods of Colón and Rio Hato, but the most tragic and gruesome attack was on the neighborhood of El Chorrillo, which had been one of the favorite haunts of the Afro Puerto Rican salsa singer Ismael Rivera. Some human rights organizations speak of 2,000 to 7,000 victims.
The U.S. special troops remained there until February 25, 1990, leaving CIA intelligence services in place who followed up on probable demonstrations against the gringo invasion.
This invasion left 18,000 families without homes, thousands were crippled, people went insane, and families were separated. The invaders did not respect whether someone was for Noriega, a Torrijista, or a pro-imperialist, and even more if anyone was Afro Panamanian: Bombs and shrapnel did not distinguish.
This fact was taken to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which ruled that the U.S. military had committed excesses with its bombing and burning of houses and buildings where civilians lived.
“The IACHR has concluded that the United States did not take sufficient measures to adequately warn Panama of this [military invasion], to safely evacuate civilians, or to prevent or respond to the plight of people who were brought into harm’s way,” the commission said in its 2018 report. “The IACHR also deemed that the way the operation was carried out did not comply with the basic principles of distinction, necessity, proportionality, and precaution established by international humanitarian law (IHL). The IACHR thus established the United States’ international responsibility for violating the rights to life, integrity, and personal security enshrined in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, to the detriment of those who lost their lives and were injured during the invasion.
“Furthermore, given that several of the deceased victims were children at the time of the events, the IACHR also ruled that the United States violated Article VII of the American Declaration.”
In the 2004 book, “La verdad sobre la invasion” (“The truth about the invasion”) by Olmedo Beluche, the young journalist Dalys Ramos is quoted in her writings about the dangers her family suffered during the invasion: “At about 12:15 a.m., my family and I were trying to get to sleep when a desperate scream was loudly heard, someone shouting that war was coming! It was one of the neighbors who had heard the assaults on Amador. I woke up my family and we were in the living room within seconds. I remember we just had time to change our clothes. The place had to be evacuated.
“In the street we could hear children screaming, ladies crying and people running trying to get out of the place. One of my sisters, who lived near the beach, came to the house with her children, who were still very young, to warn us and we all went out together to take a taxi. Panamanian soldiers were scattered all over the neighborhood, but we had to evacuate; we knew that we were in danger and when we were going down the stairs machine gun shots were heard, endangering the lives of innocent people whose only sin was living near the Central Barracks. I looked up and saw three American Cobra helicopters firing in the direction of the building where we were. Maybe they were shooting because the guards who were in the building were firing back, but the intervention was frightening, brutal and shocking.”
The U.S. military violated the right to life. IACHR’s decision against the U.S. has yet to be implemented, but Afro Panamanians continue to demand immediate reparations, because it was also an act of racism: El Chorrillo and Colón are neighborhoods mostly inhabited by Afro Panamanians. Their struggles for justice and reparations continue and have been promoted predominantly through the work of the Federación Autentica de Trabajadores de Panama (Authentic Federation of Workers of Panama). Just last year, December 20 was declared a National Day of Mourning in Panama. The invasion is neither forgiven…nor forgotten.