Panama Sincerely, Manuel Writing from Miami, Noriega stirs up trouble back home

By Ricardo Chavira/Washington

Stuck in a subterranean Miami jail cell and facing charges that could keep him imprisoned for life, Manuel Antonio Noriega would seem to be a beaten man. So much for appearances. According to federal law-enforcement officials, Noriega is fomenting trouble by penning political directives and having them faxed to his followers back home.

Although the former ruler is legally entitled to communicate with the outside world, U.S. officials contend that he is intimidating witnesses who may be called to testify against him and is urging followers to harass the U.S.-backed government of President Guillermo Endara. "He's saying such things as our case against him is weak and that he will return once he gets off," says a Bush Administration official. "That scares an awful lot of people. He's also running a faction of the opposition, and his objective is to provoke as much instability as he can. Obviously, that's something we find very disturbing."

The Endara government believes that Noriega may have gone beyond talk. Last month the three-year-old grandson of onetime Noriega crony Marcos Justines was kidnaped and killed. In charge of military finances for the Noriega regime, Justines is jailed in Panama City, charged with stealing $47 million from the National Bank and $33 million from safe-deposit boxes on Dec. 20, the day the U.S. invaded Panama. There have been unconfirmed reports that he has agreed to testify against his former boss. Late last month Panamanian authorities arrested two Noriega loyalists suspected of having planned the kidnaping. Says a Justice Department investigator: "This is bound to have a chilling effect on those thinking of cooperating with us."

Though Noriega lawyer Steve Kollin confirmed that his client has had many messages faxed to Panama, he denied that any of them were even vaguely threatening and dismissed the allegations as "the figment of someone's imagination." Meanwhile, Carlos Lehder Rivas, the once powerful Colombian drug lord who is now in a U.S. federal prison in Marion, Ill., awaiting appeal on his life sentence for drug charges, has written to Noriega. He advised his fellow prisoner to confess all and save himself the trouble and expense of a trial. That's advice Noriega is likely to ignore as long as he is able to continue vexing his enemies.