Noriega returns to Panama after 22 years

Two decades after being ousted during a bloody US invasion, former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega returns home Sunday to more time in prison and a mixed reception. The 77-year-old is due to arrive on an Iberia flight at 5:30 pm (2230 GMT), guarded by a delegation of six foreign ministry officials, police, doctors and a prosecutor who prepared the transfer for a week in Paris. Under tight security, Panama's military ruler from 1983 to 1989 will be flown by helicopter from the airport to El Renacer prison northwest of the capital in a lush area near the Panama Canal. After serving more than 20 years in prisons in the United States and France for drug trafficking and money laundering, Noriega will face three separate sentences of 20 years in Panama for crimes committed under his dictatorship, including the murder of critics. "While Panama is known for being peaceful and tolerant, emotions are running high and inmate safety is our priority," Foreign Minister Roberto Henriquez said Friday. "He will get the same treatment as any other inmate -- dignified and respectful but firm." And yet his prison conditions have drawn attention, with Minister of Government Roxana Mendez telling AFP that the former dictator will spend his days in a "recently remodeled" facility with a private bathroom and high-tech features aimed at boosting security. He will be allowed visits by relatives several times per week, and local media reports say his cell will have a small visiting room, a double bed, a refrigerator, furniture and chairs, plus a ramp for easy mobility. "What has he done to be rewarded with such luxury in jail?" asked Carmenza Spadafora, sister of Hugo Spadafora, a Noriega opponent beheaded in 1985 in a murder for which the dictator is serving one of his three sentences. It remains uncertain exactly how long he may spend behind bars, as Panamanian law allows inmates 70 years old and over to petition for house arrest. Relatives of victims of Noriega's regime have virulently opposed applying the rule to the former dictator. Aurelio Barria, who organized the Civic Crusade series of protests in the 1980s against the regime, called for demonstrators to come out into the streets to repudiate the former ruler and insist that he serve out his sentence in jail, not at home. But the predominantly youthful population -- the average age is 27 -- is more concerned with the economic rigors of everyday life, not the fate of a man who ruled the country with an iron fist before many of them were even born. Others express compassion, noting that Noriega is suffering health problems. Let him live out his old age -- he will go to prison but then go home. Noriega is not the only one to blame, there were others, but he is paying for what he did," said Elvia Maria Ugarte, a 46-year-old housewife. The return of Noriega, a paid CIA agent from 1968 to 1986 before he became an enemy of Washington, has raised expectations about the potential that he could reveal secrets about political figures and wealth amassed under his regime. Panama's current President Ricardo Martinelli has said that he would like to know who "in one way or another have been enriched at the expense of the military and the state" during that time.