Manuel Noriega

Born poor in Panama City in 1934, Noriega trained at military schools in Lima and the U.S., then climbed the ranks alongside Omar Torrijos, who seized power in a 1968 coup. He became intelligence chief under Torrijos and, after Torrijos died in 1981, consolidated control to rule Panama as dictator from 1983. For decades he fed information to U.S. intelligence and funneled weapons to American-backed forces across Latin America, even as his military ran drug trafficking operations that built his personal fortune. The alliance fractured after the murder of Hugo Spadafora and the ouster of a president; by 1988 he faced federal indictments in Miami and Tampa for racketeering and drug smuggling. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989, captured him, and flew him to trial. He served 17 years in American prison, was extradited to France for money laundering in 2010, then sent to Panama in 2011 to serve time for crimes committed under his rule. He died in 2017 following brain surgery, two months after the tumor was found.