Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega dies at 83, president says

 

FILE PHOTO: Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega takes part in a news conference at the Atlapa center in this file photo in Panama City October 11,1989. REUTERS/Alberto Lowe/File Photo

 

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has died at the age of 83 following brain surgery this year, Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela said on Twitter late on Monday.

 

Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, spied for the Central Intelligence Agency until the United States invaded and toppled his corrupt government, ending a criminal career that saw him working with drug traffickers like Pablo Escobar.

 

Noriega was initially sentenced in the United States in 1992 but was serving a sentence for murder in Panama when he died.

 

(Reporting by Elida Moreno; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-30

 

RIP Manuel. You will be remembered and missed by many around the world.

A bad hombre.