Looking Back on the US Invasion of Panama

SpyCast

History, Education, News

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This January marks the anniversary of the conclusion of Operation Just Cause, which began days before Christmas, on December 20th, 1989, when about 27,000 US troops deployed to Panama. Their mission was to capture Panama’s notorious dictator, General Manuel Noriega, whom the US had indicted for drug trafficking. Noriega had also been suppressing unarmed demonstrators, gathering intelligence on the local population, and harassing Americans- wielding weapons from the Soviet bloc. International Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa was an intelligence officer on the ground during the invasion, and he takes us from the first mortar to the moment when Noriega surrendered to US forces. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org, This show is brought to you by Goat Rodeo, N2K Networks, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Cyberwire Network, powered by N2K.
0:09.7	Welcome to SpyC, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum.
0:20.8	I'm your host, Sasha Ingber, and we're kicking
0:23.8	off a month of episodes on Latin America, crossing borders and decades to explore clandestine
0:30.8	activities that have shaped our world. We start in Panama, when the United States military invaded 36 years ago. This January marks the
0:42.5	conclusion of Operation Just Cause, which began just days before Christmas on December 20, 1989.
0:51.6	About 27,000 U.S. troops deployed to the narrow strip of land connecting Central and South America.
0:59.9	Their mission was to capture Panama's notorious dictator, General Manuel Noriega, who the U.S.
1:07.1	had indicted for drug trafficking. Noriega had also been suppressing unarmed demonstrators,
1:13.8	gathering intelligence on the local population and harassing Americans with weapons from the Soviet
1:20.8	block. International Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa was an intelligence officer on the ground during the invasion,
1:29.7	and he takes us in from the first mortar to the moment when Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.
1:37.3	Hey, Chris, good to see you.
1:39.5	Hey, Sasha, it's nice to see you, and thank you for having me as a guest today.
1:43.7	So let's just jump right in. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Manuel Noriega is actually working with the U.S. government, with the CIA, with the DEA, with U.S. military intelligence.
1:57.7	A U.S. Senate subcommittee would later end up calling him, quote, the hemisphere's first
2:03.5	narco-cleptocracy and an example of how a foreign leader can manipulate the United States.
2:10.6	But what was the U.S. getting out of him that then he was able to use and manipulate the country later on.
2:19.4	Well, the United States at the time, the interest was not only protecting the canal
2:24.6	specifically in Panama, but it was to check communism in the region. The United States was fighting
2:31.2	a proxy war against Nicaragua, which was a creeping communist nation
2:35.9	that also was sowing lots of problems in the region. There was a guerrilla war going on in
	...

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