Maduro Arrest Has Many Similarities to the Arrest of Panamanian Dictator Noriega.

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On December 20, 1989, US troops entered Panama, looking to capture Noriega. The Panamanian Defence Forces were crushed, and most of the country was held by the American forces within days. But there was no sign of Noriega. He was allowed to enter the Vatican Embassy after several days on the run.

The US troops did not want to break diplomatic protocol and enter the embassy. So, they came up with a plan: to use the tactics of “psyops”, psychological warfare operations. The troops placed speakers as a “musical barrier” around the perimeter of the Vatican Embassy and turned them to full volume.

While Noriega was known to like opera, he was made to listen to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, “Panama,” from Van Halen, “Danger Zone,” from Kenny Loggins, and “Refugee,” courtesy of Tom Petty.

After the music was played nonstop for several days, Noriega finally surrendered on January 3, 1990. He was taken to Miami, tried and convicted of drug trafficking.

“The court refused to allow Noriega’s defence to present any evidence relating to his work for the CIA, his payments from the US government, his knowledge of US subversion in Central America, his contacts with senior figures such as Bush, and their knowledge of his activities as Panama’s dictator,” The Guardian report said.

He spent nearly two decades in US prisons. Noriega died in 2017, at the age of 83.

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