Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega dies at 83, president says

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has died at the age of 83 following brain surgery this year, Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela said on Twitter late on Monday.

Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, was held in a medically induced coma after suffering brain hemorrhaging in March. The hemorrhage occurred after Noriega underwent surgery to have a tumour removed from his brain.

During his rule, Noriega initially positioned Panama as a US asset in a region that was becoming increasingly hostile to Washington's interests.

He became a key ally in Washington's attempts to battle the influence of communism in central America. He spied for the Central Intelligence Agency but the US tired of his increasingly repressive role internally in Panama, and there were indications he was selling his services to other intelligence bodies, as well as drug-trafficking organisations.

In December 1989, US President George Bush ordered a US marine invasion to topple Noriega, who had become a liability and an embarrassment to US interests.

Noriega was flown to the US, with prisoner-of-war status, to face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering.

In 2007, Noriega completed his 17 years of confinement in a Miami federal jail, but he was not a free man.

In 1999, Noriega had been convicted in absentia in a French court of spending $3m earned through drug sales to buy property. In March 2010, Noriega was extradited to France to face a new trial for money laundering.

Noriega was found guilty and sentenced to seven years.

In 2011, a French court approved a request from Panama to extradite Noriega to serve out sentences he was given in absentia over murder, corruption and embezzlement.