No time off in Panama for Noriega’s death

PANAMA CITY (AP) — The Panamanian government is telling its citizens they won’t get any time off this week due to the death of ex-dictator Manuel Noriega.

Panamanians usually get time off after the death of a president.

But a statement from the Department of Communications notes that while Noriega was briefly declared head of government in 1989, that act that was subsequently ruled unconstitutional.

Noriega was the country’s de facto ruler from 1983 to 1989 and he died Monday at age 83.

The iron-fisted ruler ordered the deaths of political opponents. The onetime U.S. ally was ousted by an American invasion in 1989, served a 17-year drug sentence in the United States and then was sent to face charges in France.

He spent all but the last few months of his final years in a Panamanian prison.