Care for a used dictator, courtesy of the Vatican? Not if he is Manuel Antonio Noriega, replied leaders of Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and perhaps other nations last week. None wanted any part of the busted Panamanian strongman, accused drug dealer and alleged black-magic practitioner. Only Cuba showed even a grudging interest in enabling Noriega to leave the Vatican embassy in Panama City, where he had taken refuge from invading U.S. troops on Christmas Eve. "We wouldn't do it for Noriega the man," said a Cuban diplomat. "This would be our way of standing up for nonintervention and, frankly, sticking it to the gringos." Officials in Washington, however, swore they would not consent to a transfer of Noriega unless he went much farther away than Cuba, to a country where he would have no chance to continue meddling in Panama.
So Noriega remained in the Panama City nunciature (papal embassy), presumably covering his ears against a pop-culture version of psychological warfare. U.S. troops ringing the embassy set up loudspeakers and blasted away with rock music, which to the opera-loving Noriega must have been sheer cacophony. Among the titles: No Place to Run, Voodoo Chile and You're No Good. The G.I.s harassed the nunciature in other ways too: they shot out a garden light and repeatedly stopped the papal legate, Monsignor Jose Sebastian Laboa, as he came and went.
Meanwhile, Washington and the Vatican were trying to find a way out of their diplomatic deadlock. A Vatican statement asserted that Laboa was "doing his best to convince General Noriega to abandon the nunciature on his own," though it added that the legate "cannot force Noriega to leave." The White House for its part declared its "appreciation" of Vatican efforts and reassured the papacy that "there are no fixed deadlines to be met."
But the softer words did not change the official positions. The U.S. was demanding that the Vatican hand over the dethroned dictator so that he could be flown to Florida for trial on charges of facilitating or arranging the smuggling of drugs into the U.S. Noriega was not a political refugee, Washington insisted, but a common criminal fleeing prosecution. In a letter to Vatican Secretary of State Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker argued that Noriega's alleged involvement in drug dealing and murder violated all moral standards of the Roman Catholic Church and of civil society, and deprived Noriega of any right to asylum.
The church, though, has a tradition of giving asylum to Latin American politicians on the run. Among them: Guillermo Endara, the U.S.-installed current President of Panama, who took shelter in the nunciature from Noriega thugs after he had won an election last May that the dictator annulled. One high-ranking Vatican official summarized the thinking: "The right to asylum must be defended, even for Lucifer." Moreover, contended a church statement, Noriega's surrender to the papal legate "helped in a very positive way to put an end to the conflict ((with invading American troops)) and to hasten the time of peace." The implication is that the asylum was in fact serving a moral cause rather than shielding a criminal.