Panama (PAN)Central America, AmericasSeptember 14, 1983
Event Summary
The event falls squarely in the aftermath of Manuel Noriega's consolidation of military power: he assumed command of the National Guard on August 12, 1983, succeeding General Rubén Darío Paredes, who had retired under an arrangement meant to make Paredes president, which Noriega then reneged on. In early September, President Ricardo de la Espriella purged Paredes loyalists from his cabinet, and Paredes withdrew from the 1984 presidential race on September 6, 1983 after concluding he had no institutional support; Noriega then restructured the National Guard into the Panama Defense Forces. One chain source (a travel guidebook cited by Wikipedia) states Noriega reneged on his deal with Paredes and had him arrested after this falling-out, which is circumstantially consistent with a Paredes-aligned conspiracy against Noriega around this time, but this could not be verified against the book itself or any contemporary news account.
Given these gaps, the target, participants, and resolution of the specific September 14, 1983 conspiracy record cannot be confirmed from sources accessed this session.
Researched Details
Research unresolved
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target: unresolved in the current research
No accessible source names a specific targeted leader for the September 14, 1983 conspiracy record itself; Noriega is only a contextually plausible target inferred from the Paredes falling-out, not a sourced fact.
Key figures
Manuel Noriega
Rubén Darío Paredes
Ricardo de la Espriella
Sources
Manuel Noriega assumed command of Panama's National Guard at a ceremony at Fort Amador at almost 10:00 a.m. on August 12, 1983.
SOURCE REVIEWEDLa Prensa (Panamá), "El ascenso del último tirano"open source ↗
General Rubén Darío Paredes retired from the National Guard in August 1983 in compliance with new constitutional provisions and was immediately succeeded by Noriega, who was promoted to brigadier general.
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, "Panama: A Country Study" (hosted at countrystudies.us) (Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.))open source ↗
In early September 1983, President Ricardo de la Espriella purged his cabinet of Paredes loyalists, and Noriega declared he would not publicly support any presidential candidate.
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, "Panama: A Country Study" (hosted at countrystudies.us) (Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.))open source ↗
Paredes withdrew from the 1984 presidential race on September 6, 1983, less than a month after retiring from the Guard, having concluded he lacked institutional backing.
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, "Panama: A Country Study" (hosted at countrystudies.us) (Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.))open source ↗
As one of his first acts after taking command, Noriega had the Legislative Assembly approve a bill restructuring the National Guard into the Panama Defense Forces (Fuerzas de Defensa de Panamá, FDP).
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, "Panama: A Country Study" (hosted at countrystudies.us) (Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty (eds.))open source ↗
Noriega made a deal with Paredes under which Paredes would become president after retiring from the National Guard; after Paredes's resignation, Noriega reneged on the deal and had him arrested.
INDIRECT CITATIONWikipedia, citing Miriam Butterman, "Moon Living Abroad in Panama," Avalon Travel, 2009 (Miriam Butterman (cited by Wikipedia))open source ↗
Editorial Note
Direct access to the Cline Center's own "Source Document v2.2.0.pdf" (which lists per-event citations by coup_id) was blocked: databank.illinois.edu's /datafiles/ paths are disallowed by robots.txt for the fetch tool, and direct network access to databank.illinois.edu and archive.org was blocked by session egress policy (403). UPI's archive pages, which include a "Chronology of Noriega's power struggle" that might cover 1983, could not be fetched due to persistent 429 rate-limiting from the fetch proxy despite multiple retries with waits. Wikipedia, Grokipedia, Britannica, Panama Defense Forces/Noriega articles, the William & Mary Panama Timeline, La Prensa Panamá's "El ascenso del último tirano," and several Spanish-language retrospectives on Panamanian coups were checked and none mention a September 14, 1983 conspiracy specifically. Given the gap between the well-documented Aug 12-Sept 6, 1983 Noriega/Paredes power transition and the dataset's Sept 14, 1983 date, it is plausible the coded event relates to a Paredes-loyalist plot against Noriega discovered shortly after Paredes's ouster, but this is not confirmed by any source I could access this session. | Re-fetched all cited URLs. (1) La Prensa "El ascenso del último tirano" is live and its text matches the quoted fact and quote verbatim (Fort Amador, ~10:00 a.m., Aug 12 1983) — CONFIRMED. (2) countrystudies.us/panama/22.htm is live and contains verbatim matches for all four facts sourced to it (Paredes retirement/Noriega succession & promotion; early-Sept cabinet purge and Noriega's neutrality statement; Paredes's Sept 6 withdrawal; FDP restructuring as "one of his first acts") — all CONFIRMED, no changes needed. (3) The Wikipedia article on Rubén Darío Paredes exists and does contain a sentence matching the CHAIN fact's core claim (deal to make Paredes president, Noriega reneged, had him arrested), backed by a real, specifically-numbered citation to Butterman's "Moon Living Abroad in Panama" (2009) — so the source is not invented. However, the original CHAIN fact text added the unsupported detail "in exchange for the commandancy" — the Wikipedia article/citation only states the deal would make Paredes president; it says nothing about what Noriega was promised in return. This is an unsourced embellishment, so I trimmed it from the fact text and softened the corresponding summary sentence, which had echoed the "abandoned [a] power-sharing arrangement" framing. Target_leader was already appropriately labeled NONE with a clear "inference, not sourced" caveat — left unchanged. No other unsupported claims found in the summary; everything else in it maps to a sourced fact. Net result: one fact text trimmed of an unsupported detail, summary lightly reworded to match; all five VERIFIED facts and the corrected CHAIN fact hold up under direct re-fetch.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Washington Post
“Panamanian President Forced Out,” September 28, 1983
Newsday
“Panama President Forced From Office,” September 29, 1983
Chicago Tribune
“Panama’s President Steps Down,” September 29, 1983 “Panama’s President Resigns Under Fire: Assistant Sworn In,” September 29, 1983
Chicago Tribune
“Panama’s President Steps Down,” September 29, 1983 “Panama’s President Resigns Under Fire: Assistant Sworn In,” September 29, 1983
The Gazette
“Panama’s president resigns, says TV amid coup rumors,” September 28, 1985
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →