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Nor did Pope John Paul II appreciate Washington's heavy-handed tactics. Said a source close to the Pontiff: "The more pressure the U.S. puts on ((the Pope and his aides)), the more they will dig in their heels." Referring to the siege by rock music, and pointing to the third floor of the papal palace where the Pope has his offices, an American priest in the Vatican said, "They don't like it one bit. And if ((the Americans)) think a stunt like this is going to get them anywhere, they'd better think again." At week's end the loud serenade was halted.
Prospects for a quick compromise seem dim. One alternative might be for the Vatican to hand over Noriega to the new Panamanian government. But neither . Endara nor his American protectors like that idea. The dictator faces no criminal charges in Panama. Even if some were to be filed against him now, Endara and the U.S. alike fear Noriega could make trouble from a Panamanian jail cell. "Frankly, I wish he were dead," says Luis Martinz, a top aide to Endara. Failing that, Panama's leaders would turn Noriega over to the U.S. if they got their hands on him. Endara at first declared that there was no legal basis for extraditing Noriega to the U.S., but later found a clause in an obscure 1904 treaty that might permit it. The flip-flop will neither enhance Endara's reputation for independence from his American patrons nor ease the Vatican's opposition to surrendering the general.
Letting Noriega go into exile somewhere outside Panama stirs no enthusiasm in the Bush Administration. It would raise an embarrassing question of why the U.S. and Panama had to suffer the death and destruction of the invasion for a result that could possibly have been accomplished peacefully. Several times in the past few years Noriega and the U.S. came close to a deal under which the dictator would have left Panama in return for having the American indictments against him quashed, but the arrangements always fell through.
In the aftermath of invasion, said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, the stakes have been raised. To justify the 23 G.I.s killed and 300-odd wounded, the 600 Panamanians dead and $2 billion in economic damages, the U.S. wants more from Noriega than simple exile. Nonetheless, at length and after much screaming, the U.S. may decide to live with a negotiated deal. "All things considered, having him go to a third country where he won't be able to stir up trouble is not such a bad way for this thing to end," said a State Department official. But Washington would insist on some stern and hard-to- enforce conditions: that Noriega have no access to his fortune, estimated at $200 million to $300 million, and that he be kept isolated from press and TV. Those conditions would scarcely help overcome the reluctance of third countries to harbor the dictator.