A Paris appeals court ruled Wednesday to grant an extradition request from Panama so the elderly ex-military strongman can serve out sentences given after he was convicted in absentia there, in the latest phase of his complex legal odyssey.
France's prime minister, Francois Fillon, now needs to sign an administrative decree allowing for Noriega to be transferred, possibly within days. (NPR)
According to NPR's reporting, Noriega "turned into an embarrassment for the U.S. after he sidled up to Colombia's Medellin drug cartel and turned to crime." I'm not so sure how accurate that it is. From what I understand, Noriega had been working with the Colombians (drug trafficking) and the Americans (resupplying the contras) for some time.
It wasn't that he became an embarrassment to the US (we have plenty of embarrassing allies) as much as he no longer was working with the US to supply the contras in order to help overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. He even worked to help end the Central American civil wars.
Once he was no longer helpful in supplying the contras, it made no little sense to overlook his drug trafficking ties. But even then, disagreements within the US government remained as to whether to cut ties with him. Some thought he was still useful, others did not.
Then there are the other issues such as the security of thousands of US soldiers and families based in Panama, Bush establishing his foreign policy credentials, and the future of the Panama Canal.
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