This novel does not pretend to be a journalistic account of General Manuel Antonio Noriega and his seven-year reign in Panama. Some of the people chronicled here are part composite, part invention. This was done to allow myself the freedom necessary to imagine the thoughts, feelings, and actions of literary characters. In the case of the Nuncio and his secretary, for example, I have imposed my own characters in place of their real-life counterparts. The book largely follows the true events that occurred between September 13, 1985, when Dr. Hugo Spadafora was assassinated, and the U.S. invasion of Panama on December 20, 1989.
My character, Tony Noriega, is a creature of my imagination. Although his actions are structured upon the facts of General Noriega’s life as I understand them, my goal in this book is to create a personality who lives plausibly within these pages. It may help the reader to know that, in addition to General Noriega’s conviction for racketeering and conspiring to manufacture and import cocaine into the United States, for which he is currently serving a thirty-year sentence in federal prison in Miami, he has also been convicted in absentia in Panama for his involvement in the murders of Hugo Spadafora and Major Moisés Giroldi. The scenes of his direct participation in those murders are my own creations. Hugo Spadafora’s head has never actually been found.
Thanks are due to many helpful people who contributed their knowledge and insight in the preparation of this book. At the top of the list is my friend and invaluable guide Berta Ramona Thayer, a lawyer and journalist whose universal access to people in all ranks of Panamanian society made my visits there both productive and delightful. I would also like to offer special thanks to Mario Rognoni, General Noriega’s former spokesman and one of Central America’s great raconteurs; Roberto Eisenmann, founder of La Prensa; Guillermo Sánchez Borbón, whose outspoken and wonderfully mischievous columns for that paper helped bring Noriega down; José Blandón, who was Noriega’s chief political adviser; Roberto Díaz Herrera; former president Ernesto Pérez Balladares; former vice president Ricardo Arias Calderón; and Mayín Correa, a brave journalist who became mayor of Panama City. In addition, I am happy to acknowledge the debt I owe to Aquilino Boyd, Pablo Thalassinos, Carlos Duque, Daniel Delgado, Escolastico Calvo, Ricardo Bermudez, Dr. Gioconda Gaudiano, Pedro Rognoni, Fernando Quesada, Lucho Delgado, and Manuel Solís Palma, each of whom afforded me generous amounts of time and precious observations about their country and the complicated man who held it in his grasp.
Several books were also extremely helpful to my understanding of Noriega and Panama; in particular I point to Kevin Buckley’s Panama, Frederick Kempe’s Divorcing the Dictator, John Dinges’s Our Man in Panama, Roberto Díaz Herrera’s Panama: Política y magia; R. M. Koster and Guillermo Sánchez’s In the Time of the Tyrants, José de Jesús Martínez’s La Invasión de Panamá, Steve Albert’s The Case Against the General, Mayín Correa’s Sin concesiones, and Luis Murillo’s encyclopedic The Noriega Mess. General Noriega wrote an autobiography with Peter Eisner titled America’s Prisoner, which presents his version of events. Stephanie C. Kane’s delightful book on the Choco, The Phantom Gringo Boat, helped me understand that culture.
In this country I was assisted by David Adams, Ricardo Ainslie, John Burnett, and Mac Chapin. Several friends read the manuscript at various stages and offered their guidance, including Lee Aitken, Matthew Fox, Nancy Hardin, Jan McInroy, James Magnuson, and Wendy Weil. I am also grateful to David Rosenthal and Geoffrey Kloske at Simon & Schuster for their valuable editorial guidance. Stephen Harrigan’s counsel has always been wise and generous, and his friendship has lit the lonely path of the writer’s life for nearly twenty years. Finally I must acknowledge my wife, Roberta, whose love and good humor have sustained me through many uncertain times. For all the help I’ve been given by these friends and colleagues, I say thanks and thanks again.