The United States Invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the U.S. to Panama by 1 January 2000. During the invasion, de facto Panamanian leader, general, and dictator Manuel Noriega, who for a long time worked with the Central Intelligence Agency, was deposed citing racketeering and drug trafficking. Following the operation, the Panama Defense Forces was dissolved and President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office.
The December 1989 US invasion of Panama really was a permission slip for Washington—led by both Republicans and Democrats—to waste whatever potential benefits the end of the Cold War might have brought. Remember the “peace dividend”? The Berlin Wall had just fallen on November 9, and George H.W. Bush, the “realist,” was quick to use Panama to leverage the collapse of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, declaring the end of “sovereignty” and the right of the United States to invade other countries in the name of “democracy” and “human rights.”
December 20, 1989 is a day of infamy for the people of Panama. On that day, the most powerful military in the world descended on poor black communities in the middle of Panama City and carried out one of the most brutal war crimes of the late 20th century. Many in the U.S. have forgotten or never even knew that when George H. Bush ordered U.S. troops into Panama, Panamanians experienced their version of 9/11. By the time the carnage ended a few weeks later, U.S soldiers had murdered more than 3,000 Panamanians – changing the lives of Panamanians forever.
United States invasion of Panama – Wikipedia
2017-05-30 How the 1989 War on Manuel Noriega’s Panama Super-Charged US Militarism
2014-12-25 December 20, 1989: The Day that Black Lives Did Not Matter in Panama
2014-12-22 The War to Start All Wars: The 25th Anniversary of the Forgotten Invasion of Panama
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