With Operation Just Cause, (President Bush) restored democracy to Panama by capturing and bringing to justice dictator Manuel Noriega for international drug trafficking." -- from a Bush-Quayle campaign '92 pamphlet.

More than three years have passed since the United States sent the Marines to "liberate" Panama. The national media heralded the event as embodying our "good neighbor policy" towards Latin America, and Bush's popularity soared as he demonstrated his toughness in international affairs.

However, the American public was never told half the story about the invasion of Panama, nor about the circumstances preceding it. A closer look at the historical record may prove quite revealing.

A well-touted reason for Operation Just Cause was Washington's claim that it was restoring democracy to Panama. Noriega stole the May 1989 elections that the U.S.-backed candidate Guillermo Endara had won. But the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Panamanian National Assembly refused to recognize Endara as the victor because the CIA had effectively bought the elections by spending at least $10 million to finance the Endara campaign. (A proportional amount spent on U.S. elections would be one billion dollars!) The elections were also conducted under a devastating U.S. embargo that crippled the tiny country's economy and was condemned by the OAS as a form of economic warfare and U.S. intervention.

Irrespective of world opinion, Washington outright invaded Panama to install its preferred government, blatantly violating international law in the process. The OAS and nations worldwide harshly denounced our "gun boat diplomacy" and total disregard for the Panamanian people's sovereignty. Nonetheless, Endara was inaugurated on a U.S. military base and tentatively remains in power to this day.

Another prominent pretext regularly invoked for the invasion was the "War on Drugs." Our principled president couldn't stand idly by as Noriega continued to make his fortune dealing drugs into the United States and elsewhere. However, Noriega's drug dealing was old news; U.S. intelligence knew of Noriega's involvement in the drug racket since the mid '70s, back when he was a U.S. favorite receiving $200,000 annually from the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency. Washington looked the other way until the late '80s when Noriega's usefulness diminished with the waning of the U.S. proxy war against Nicaragua. In fact, when Noriega was indicted for drug trafficking in Miami in 1988 in absentia, all the charges except one were related to activities that took place before 1984, back when he was financed and supported by the United States. Having been effectively kidnapped as the Panamanian head of State in the invasion, Noriega is now serving a 40-year prison term in Florida.

Has the attempt to stem the Panamanian drug trade been successful? According to the General Accounting Office of Congress, drug trafficking "may have doubled" since the invasion while money laundering has "flourished." A study financed by the U.S. Agency of International Development shows narcotics use in post-invasion Panama increasing by 400 percent to the highest level in Latin America. Such facts are not surprising since the U.S.-installed Endara regime has extensive ties to the Panamanian banks that are the primary money launderers for the Columbian drug cartels. Even President Endara, a corporate lawyer, had for years been a director of a Panamanian bank that the FBI discovered to be involved in money laundering.

One must not lose sight of the human tragedy resulting from the invasion. Whereas the State Department is only willing to acknowledge that 516 Panamanians died, both the National Human Rights Commission of Panama and the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central America claim that at least 2,000 people had perished. The Catholic and Episcopal Churches give estimates of 3,000 dead as "conservative." In the predominantly black El Chorillo district of Panama City alone, hundreds of civilians were killed and upwards of 30,000 made homeless by the "infernal mastery" of F-117A stealth fighters and Apache helicopters. So much for the Pentagon's claims that it was a "surgical operation."

Life has become increasingly unbearable in Panama under the Endara regime. Poverty levels have risen from 40 percent to 54 percent since the invasion, and with unemployment skyrocketing, crime has quadrupled. The economy has collapsed, with "catastrophic effects in the areas of food, housing, and basic services such as health, education, and culture," according to a U.N. report. An increasingly desperate population turns to drugs to escape its plight, leading to the huge rise in drug use and drug profits for the Panamanian banks. While the predominantly light-skinned elite are doing just fine, a mood of anger and resentment permeates the growing underclass in their sprawling shantytowns. According to 1992 polls, the U.S. favorite President Endara would receive 2.4 percent of the vote if elections were held.

This past June, the American public was provided a glimpse of the genuine situation in Panama. George Bush and his campaign organizers had attempted to boost his sagging popularity by organizing a photo-opportunity with the Endara government. Tiny Panamanian and American flags were passed out to the invitation-only audience that had gathered under a large banner proclaiming the event as "A Meeting of Friends." However, thousands of anti-American protesters who had been barred from the area stormed the barricades before them. The outmanned security forces were forced to fire off tear gas canisters in an attempt to disperse the angry crowd. And a coughing, squinting George Bush fled the scene in a limousine protected by gun-toting Secret Service agents.

Will Yankee ever go home?

Sources available at the Collegian upon request.