On Sunday, December 11, 2011, Manuel Noriega returned to Panama City, Panama after bouncing around the American and French justice systems for the past two decades.

Who is Manuel Antonio Noriega?

For those of you who don’t know, Manuel Antonio Noriega is a former Panamanian politician and soldier. He was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He is often called “Pineapple Face”.

In the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States he was removed from power, captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. Noriega’s U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007; pending the outcome of extradition requests by both Panama and France, for convictions in absentia for murder in 1995 and money laundering in 1999. France was granted its extradition request in April 2010. He arrived in Paris on April 27, 2010, and after a re-trial as a condition of the extradition, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail in July 2010. A conditional release was granted on September 23, 2011 for Noriega to be extradited to serve 20 years in Panama.

You can read lots more here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega

The absolute best way to learn more about this period of Panama’s history to is talk with Panamanians…