In 1981 Manuel Antonia Noriega got the power of Panama Defense Force. He was a very terrible and dishonest dictator. Manuel was a drug dealer with power. He stole millions of dollars from the Panamanians. In 1989 when the people elected a new president, Noriega refused to let him be on power. The US responded by sending thousand of troops to Panama, for 40 days making Panama an unsafe country. My family had to leave Panama because of the invasion .
In 1989 President Bush gave the order to the US troops to invade Panama and take Noriega out of power. President Bush interest was to protect US lives in Panama, efend the Panama Canal, restore democracy to Panama, stop drug trafficking and to bring General Manuel Antonio Noriega to justice. They started looking for him everywhere, destroying houses, stores, buildings. .
During the US invasion, since the country was in crisis, the owners of the stores risked their lives, to defend their stores, because the rebels where robbing them. I can tell you that my uncle went to protect his store by himself only carrying a gun. My uncle has a store in downtown Panama and the only way to protect the store was with a gun so he went to the front of the store with a gun and he scared the people who were sacking stores. My uncle is a brave man I admire him because of that. The sackings cost Panama millions of dollars and 30% of all stores in Panama were sacked. In Panama everyone was scared, some people were so scared that they left the country. In my case, my family and I went to Miami, Florida during the invasion. We stayed in a hotel in South Beach for two months and when things got back to normal we went back.
It took 40 days for the US troops to find General Noriega; he was living in a hotel in the main street. When they found him they took him out of Panama and the next day the US troops leaved the country. The worst thing is that the Americans leaved Panama without helping the Panamanians rebuild the country.