The American government is spraying disinformation about Panama history in order to cover current crimes in Venezuela.
Some reporters foolishly repeat this disinformation and invert the actual sequence and legitimacy markers. Here’s an example from Politico:
The closest recent analogue for the Maduro prosecution is the trial of former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, who was seized by U.S. troops in 1990.
No, no and no.
| Panama 1990 | Venezuela 2026 |
| 1988 indictment, Dec 1989 invasion | 2020 indictment, NO invasion until Jan 2026 |
| Nullified election to restore | NO democratic process, foreign military administration |
| Panama declared war on US | NO threat from Venezuela |
| US Marine killed at checkpoint | NO threat to US personnel |
| Months of sanctions, diplomacy exhausted | NO alternatives demonstrated |
| Elected president (Endara) sworn in | NO legitimate government allowed |
| “Restore democracy, protect canal” | NO democracy, “run the country, extract the oil” |
| US withdraws after transition | NO end, occupation announced |
Invasion of Panama was condemned as illegal because it violated international law. But it used several obvious procedural markers of legitimacy: triggering events, an elected president to install, stated limited objectives, actual withdrawal. Panama also lacked congressional authorization since Bush acted unilaterally. These are grains of truth being used to build the propaganda comparing it to Venezuela. The differences matter far more than the similarities. Congress subsequently acquiesced to Panama partly because of those legitimacy markers.
Venezuela has none.
Or to be more precise, Venezuela’s claimed justifications are all contradictions and self-destruct on contact: “law enforcement” meant a “War Department” bombs military bases, “not an invasion” is followed by “we now run the country to ‘rebuild’ the oil.” What’s the plan? The closest actual precedent is Hitler’s 1938 Lebensraum. The story can’t survive a single press conference because there is no coherent legal theory—only force.
“TAKE THE OIL,” [self-proclaimed Nazi] Fuentes posted on social-media app Telegram on Saturday. “THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE IS OURS.”
Venezuela uses the outcome of Panama (courts accepted Noriega’s prosecution after Delta Force failed to assassinate him) to justify skipping everything that gave Panama even its thin legitimacy. The reasoning becomes that courts won’t review how illegal custody was obtained, therefore any indictment at the end justifies any means of military action, even 1938 Nazi doctrine.
That’s not precedent, that’s laundering state crimes into military dictatorship. American media are taking the grain of truth (courts deferred) and stripping the context (why they deferred) to authorize something structurally opposite.
Opposite.
Think about what it means when opposites are presented by a government as the same. Inversion of meaning is definitional to fascist rhetoric.
really appreciate that you’re calling out how inappropriate it is to analogize to noriega; so not the same