Noriega extradited to Panama

Associated Press

PANAMA CITY, Panama

More than two decades after the U.S. forced him from power, Manuel Noriega returned to Panama on Sunday as a prisoner and, to many of those he once ruled with impunity, an irrelevant man.

Some Panamanians feel hatred for the former strongman and rejected American ally; a few others, nostalgia. But as he returned to his native country for the first time since his ouster, it seemed like few people had any strong feelings at all.

There were no legions of admirers at Panama City’s Tocumen airport when the Spanish Iberia airlines’ flight touched down, delivering him from Paris’ La Sante prison after a stopover in Madrid. The crowds in the capital Sunday were of holiday shoppers.

Noriega, who has served drug sentences in the United States and a money- laundering term in France, was whisked by helicopter to the El Renacer prison to serve out three 20-year sentences for the slayings of political opponents in the 1980s. An elevated platform was set up at the prison so journalists could watch him enter, giving Panamanians what likely was their only glimpse of the man who once ran the country like his private fiefdom.

As if to show just how far he has declined, Noriega, once known for his snappy military uniforms and nationalistic swagger, was wheeled into the prison in a wheelchair.