How Manuel Noriega surrendered to the sanity-destroying power of mallrat music
US special forces know that bad music on loop can get the strongest opponent to surrender – from a Panamanian dictator to a Guantanamo detainee
It was a Christmas miracle. On 25 December 1989, Panamanian dictator , who has died this week, sought refuge in the Papal Nunciatura (the Vatican’s embassy in Panama). Noriega was facing a US indictment for narco-trafficking, as well as claims of electoral fraud. To smoke him – constant barrages of sound played from the speakers of encircling US army Humvees.
