Panama declare war on America prior to our removal of Noriega from that country
Executive summary
The Panamanian National Assembly — at the urging of Manuel Noriega — passed a resolution on December 15, 1989 declaring that a “state of war” existed between Panama and the United States, an act cited by the U.S. administration as among the pretexts for Operation Just Cause five days later [1] [2] [3]. Historians and legal observers accept that a formal legislative declaration occurred, but dispute remains about its legal weight and whether it actually amounted to an armed attack justifying U.S. military action [4] [5] [3].
1. The literal fact: a legislative declaration on December 15, 1989
Multiple contemporary and retrospective accounts record that Panama’s legislature, under Noriega’s influence, declared that a state of war existed with the United States on December 15, 1989; Noriega had just consolidated power as “maximum leader” and the assembly’s resolution is explicitly cited in encyclopedias, archival reporting and international complaints [1] [2] [4] [6].
2. The political context that produced the declaration
The declaration did not arise in a vacuum: Noriega had annulled May 1989 election results, survived coups and worsening relations with Washington after indictments and shifting alliances, and then persuaded the National Assembly to both name him chief executive and to adopt the war-resolution amid rising tensions and isolated violent incidents involving U.S. personnel [6] [4] [1].
3. How the United States treated that declaration
The Bush administration publicly cited the assembly’s statement and subsequent attacks on U.S. personnel and property as part of the rationale for launching Operation Just Cause on December 20, 1989 — an operation whose aims the administration summarized as protecting Americans, restoring democracy, apprehending Noriega, and safeguarding the Canal treaty [2] [5] [1].
4. Competing legal and factual narratives about what “declaring war” meant
Scholars and legal bodies later highlighted that the Panamanian resolution was a political declaration instigated by Noriega rather than the onset of a cross-border armed attack; petitioners to regional bodies argued that circumstances did not meet the threshold of imminent armed attack required under the UN Charter, a view reflected in OAS and human-rights complaints that criticized the U.S. intervention [3] [5].
5. Alternative framings used by historians and journalists
Some accounts emphasize that the U.S. action was framed operationally as a law-enforcement effort to capture Noriega on U.S. drug-trafficking indictments rather than a response to a formal declaration of war, and note that domestic legal rationales were advanced to avoid needing a formal congressional war authorization [7] [8]. Other commentators present the assembly’s declaration as a clear, provocative political act that helped justify rapid escalation by Washington [9] [10].
6. The practical timeline between declaration and invasion
The timeline is straightforward in the sources: the assembly declared a state of war on December 15, and by December 20 U.S. forces had launched Operation Just Cause, entering Panama City with airborne and amphibious forces and seizing control of much of the country in a short, intense campaign aimed at removing Noriega [1] [2] [3].
7. Assessment: did Panama “declare war on America” prior to Noriega’s removal?
Yes — the Panamanian National Assembly issued a resolution declaring a state of war on December 15, 1989, a fact repeatedly recorded by encyclopedias, news analyses and international reports [1] [2] [4]. The significance and legality of that declaration, however, remain contested: it was politically driven by Noriega, did not amount in many observers’ views to the sort of armed attack that would justify unilateral military invasion under international law, and figured alongside U.S. criminal indictments and strategic concerns in Washington’s decision to invade [3] [5] [7].