The rise and fall of Noriega
Source: CNN Latin America edition
(CNN) -- Once one of Central America's most notorious military strongmen, former Panamanian dictator and convicted drug trafficker Manuel Noriega has been a prisoner since being toppled from power in 1990 in a U.S. invasion.
For almost two decades, Noriega was a major player in a country of critical regional importance to the U.S. because of its location on the Panama Canal, a key strategic and economic waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the narrow isthmus linking the Americas.
Born in 1934, Noriega was abandoned by his parents at the age of five and raised by an aunt in a rundown district of Panama City. After failing to get into medical school, Noriega joined the army, studying at Peru's Military Academy of Chorrillos and quickly rising through the ranks.
