United States Foreign Relations Panama

MAJOR ACTIONS Just before U.S. military operation, dubbed "Just Cause," begins early Wednesday, Guillermo Endara is sworn in as Panama's president at undisclosed site. A foe of strongman Manuel A. Noriega, he is presumed winner of May 7 election, nullified by Noriega's regime. 1--Fighting begins at 1 a.m., under light of full moon. Battalion of Army Rangers parachutes into Rio Hato, former U.S. airfield west of Panama City and home of Noriega. Site is later "neutralized." Noriega is not found.

Jesus Anibal Zapata, described by U.S. officials as a "ringleader" in the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel, was convicted in Los Angeles federal court Friday on charges of laundering more than $45 million in drug proceeds for the cartel.

Beginning next week, exiled opponents of Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega will mount a series of economic, political and military actions designed to deal a fatal blow to the Noriega regime, a leading opposition figure said Monday.

Nearly two years after he challenged the United States to bring him to justice on drug charges, Manuel A. Noriega stood before a federal judge in a heavily guarded Miami courtroom Thursday, a defendant in the grasp of the U.S. legal system that he had scorned for so long. The deposed Panamanian dictator declared through his lawyers, on his first day in the United States, that the government has no legal jurisdiction to try him on drug-trafficking charges here. But U.S. District Judge William M.

The United States and Panama announced that they had failed to negotiate an agreement to permit American troops to remain in Panama beyond the end of the century. The Panama Canal treaties require the departure of the soldiers by Dec. 31, 1999, when control over the waterway reverts to Panama. Since 1997, the two countries had sought to agree on establishing a multinational counternarcotics center in which military personnel from the U.S. and other hemispheric countries would take part.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived here Saturday in a bid to patch up feelings that were hurt when neither she nor President Clinton attended the recent ceremony in which control of the Panama Canal was turned over to Panamanians. Albright went on a brief tour of the Miraflores Locks section of the canal and recalled how, in the 1970s, she and other members of the Carter administration were proud of the decision to turn the waterway over to Panama.

No drugs were found aboard the H. V. Hermann, a Cuban-chartered freighter that was attacked by the U.S. Coast Guard after refusing to submit to a search in international waters, the Mexican navy said Thursday. "Nothing has been found after a round-the-clock inspection that began at 8:40 Wednesday morning, when the Hermann was received by Mexican naval vessels," a navy spokesman said. The Panamanian-registered freighter was struck by cannon and machine-gun rounds fired by the U.S.

U.S. authorities moved with lightning speed Wednesday to deliver deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega into the hands of the federal courts--but bringing him to trial will be a long time coming at best. Sources close to both sides of the case agree that a welter of legal and national security issues must be fought over and resolved in favor of the prosecution before a jury can even begin hearing evidence--a process likely to take more than a year.

The Bush Administration indicated Tuesday that the complex negotiations over the fate of deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega might be heading toward a resolution that would place Noriega in U.S. hands. "It's coming down to the end game," a State Department official said. "It's looking more and more and more like Noriega's choices are being narrowed down to one."