1989–1990
Operation Just Cause (Panama) and the Noriega drug-war justification
The U.S. invaded Panama, citing threats to U.S. personnel, treaty interests, and the goal of bringing Manuel Noriega—linked to drug trafficking—to justice. It was a decisive kinetic action framed partly through a drug-and-order narrative.
Then
Noriega was captured and later prosecuted; the Panamanian government changed.
Now
Left a lasting regional memory of U.S. intervention justified by security and narcotics claims.
Why this matters now
It’s the cautionary parallel: drug-war logic can become an on-ramp to regime-change suspicions.