In the Time of the Tyrants

Koster, R.M and Borbon, Guillermo Sanchez

ISBN 10: 0436200163 / ISBN 13: 9780436200168

Published by Secker & Warburg (UK Edition), 1990

About this Item

An eyewitness account of how Panama, since 1968, has fallen victim to a line of military dictators who have fattened on the misery of a country once democratic and prosperous. the drama of Panama as well as observers. They tell the story of how the darkness fell on Panama, how the tyrants, from Omar Torrijos to Manuel Noriega, became creatures of the secret government of the United States, and were supported long after their true nature was known. It is the story of those tyrants killed, those they corrupted and those who were brave enough to stand up to them. Researched and written several years before the downfall of Manuel Noriega, this book is a powerful indictment of U.S. policy in Panama. The authors (Koster is an American novelist and Borbon is an exiled Panamanian journalist) concentrate on the conflict between "visible'' U.S. government policies and the "invisible'' arrangements.

Seller Inventory # 000746

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In the Time of the Tyrants
• Publisher: Secker & Warburg (UK Edition)
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0436200163
• ISBN 13: 9780436200168
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fair
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

The true story of how darkness fell upon Panama, how the tyrants, from Omar Torrijos to Manuel Noriega, became creatures of the secret government of the United States, and were supported long after their true nature was known. It is the story of those they killed, corrupted, and those who stood up to them.

From Publishers Weekly

This scathing indictment of U.S. Central American policy by an American novelist and a Panamanian journalist chronicles 21 years of misrule from the advent of Omar Torrijos to the fall of Manuel Noriega. In describing the power struggle following Torrijos's death in 1981, Koster and Sanchez charge that the Reagan administration helped Noriega, its "protege and accomplice," steal the '84 election, and they scoff at George Bush's claim to have been unaware of Noriega's involvement in drug traffic. The book deals primarily with the crimes and cruelties of Torrijos ("a tyrant, murderer, and thief") and Noriega ("an entirely untrustworthy, totally amoral, sadomasochistic sociopath"), and reveals how the U.S. "midwifed" the Panamanian dictatorship into existence in '68, supported it materially and morally in its various permutations, then cut out the very cancer it had created in last year's military intervention. A credible, informative report, it is, however, studded with angry charges not supported with documentation, for example, that Bush, when vice-president, shared a metaphorical bed with the dopers.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.