Noriega's Goon Squad

Members of the gang that carried out the bloody attack on Panama's opposition leaders last week did not try to hide their identities. In fact, they wore T shirts advertising themselves as members of Batallon Dignidad, or the Dignity Battalion. It is one of at least 20 paramilitary squads, with a total membership estimated at 7,000 to 10,000, that were founded last year ostensibly to help block a Yanqui invasion that Manuel Antonio Noriega insisted was imminent. According to Bush Administration officials, the squads were created with help from a small group of Cuban advisers in Panama and modeled on similar...

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