NPR News

When the U.S. invaded Panama

By Ari Shapiro,

Tomas Ayuso, Courtney Dorning, Karen Zamora, Rolando Arrieta

Published February 3, 2025 at 4:56 PM EST

Isa Ashaw, 22, walks in front of a mural illustrating the events of the December 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama City, known as Operation Just Cause.

Updated February 24, 2025 at 15:26 PM ET

EL CHORRILLO, Panama – At the top of a hill in this working-class neighborhood in Panama City, Efraín Guerrero tells an American tour group how his parents responded when the U.S. government invaded these streets 35 years ago.

"They hid us under the bed," Guerrero, 39, says through a translator.

In December 1989, thousands of U.S. troops came to Guerrero's neighborhood and opened fire. Troops were looking for Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by the U.S. government for racketeering and drug trafficking charges.

Efraín Guerrero is the founder of Movimiento Cultural Identidad. Guerrero gives walking tours of El Chorrillo for locals and tourists to learn more about one of Panama's most historic neighborhoods.

Now, 35 years later, the U.S. government is once again focused on Guerrero's home. President Trump has threatened to "take back" the Panama Canal. When a reporter recently asked whether he'd consider using the military to take back the canal, Trump said, "I'm not going to commit to that now."

Apartment buildings were constructed in the neighborhood after the U.S. invasion.

Julissa Jaramillo, a survivor of the U.S. invasion of Panama, remembers being told "the wolf is coming" when she was younger.

Experts say the U.S. is unlikely to seek a violent conflict with Panama, but to people who survived one American invasion already, those assurances aren't much comfort.

Julissa Jaramillo remembers what the grown-ups told her when she was 16.

"They kept telling us the wolf is coming, the wolf is coming," Jaramillo says through a translator.

For people in this neighborhood, the U.S. invasion, known as Operation Just Cause, was a dividing line in their lives. There was a before and an after.

"They say it was a just cause. It was not a just cause," she says. "They say it was an intervention. But it was an invasion."

Samuel Ricaurte Castañeda (top left) with his daughter (top right) and granddaughters in front of his home in El Chorrillo.

Esther Castañeda, Samuel Ricaurte Castañeda's wife, prepares seafood rice and beans for his birthday. The couple live in an apartment building constructed after the 1989 invasion.

Another resident, 63-year-old Samuel Ricaurte Castañeda, remembers trying to reach his mother on the other side of town when the first wave of gunshots rang out.

"I don't want this to happen again," he says through a translator. "With all my heart, I don't want this to happen again … I would give my life for Panama."

Samuel Ricaurte Castañeda in front of his former home in El Chorrillo. He was 27 when the U.S. invaded his neighborhood.

Preserving a unique piece of Panamanian history

Guerrero founded a cultural heritage group, Movimiento Cultural Identidad, that works to preserve the history of El Chorrillo. He also conducts walking tours that he calls an "immersive museum."

During a recent tour, Guerrero showed bullet holes where fighting was the fiercest, the repurposed ruins of Noriega's military infrastructure, and cenotaphs to commemorate civilians killed in the crossfire. He also stopped at street corners and shared photographs on his tablet from the same intersection 35 years ago — images of American soldiers bearing down on civilians contrasted with today's backdrop of luxury apartments.

Efraín Guerrero holds a tablet showing a photograph of American soldiers walking up the same street in El Chorrillo neighborhood. American troops were searching for Manuel Noriega.

Children play in the streets near El Chorrillo. This neighborhood was mostly reduced to rubble during the 1989 U.S. invasion.

The reality is that this neighborhood is changing. Once home to immigrants working on the construction of the Panama Canal, it was heavily damaged during the invasion and later became a place known for criminal violence. Now, luxury high-rises are beginning to tower over the streets.

Isa Ashaw, 22, is a cultural ambassador for Movimiento Cultural Identidad. His tattoo reads "Never Forget," a common refrain to remember the events of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.

More so than ever, Guerrero says, the community is willing to defend a neighborhood once destroyed — to preserve not only a unique piece of Panamanian cultural heritage but also their homes, on their own resilient terms.

"I grew up here. I don't want to see a world where my daughter doesn't know her roots," he says. "Or be in a world where the old timers lose theirs."

Older residents gather to watch a sports game in the heart of El Chorrillo. Many people who lived through the invasion were born and raised in this historic neighborhood.