Surrender
After ten days of demoralization, Monsignor Jose Sebastian Laboa told Noriega that he had no choice but to surrender to the American soldiers at the front gate. Time magazine later noted that Monsignor Laboa was not entirely honest with Noriega, falsely telling him that no country in the world was willing to grant him refuge. Monsignor Laboa had also written to the US Army, granting his permission for them to storm the property if they believed his life was in danger. Eventually, Monsignor Laboa said that if Noriega did not surrender to the Americans, the Papal staff would evacuate the building, move into a Catholic high school and declare it the new embassy - leaving Noriega alone in the abandoned building to face the Americans without any benefit of Vatican sanctuary.
Noriega asked permission to phone his wife and three daughters, who had taken refuge in the Cuban embassy; he ensured they would be flown to exile in the Dominican Republic if he surrendered.
On January 3, Noriega attended Holy Mass in the Nuncio's chapel and took communion; where Laboa's homily was about the thief on the cross who in one moment asked God to change his life, and reportedly brought tears to Noriega's eyes.
After Mass, Noriega retired to his room where he wrote two letters, one to his wife informing her "I go now on an adventure", and the other thanking the Pope and stressing that he believed himself innocent and that he had always acted in the best interests of the Panamanian people and requesting the Pope's prayers.
Noriega dressed in his tan uniform, receiving permission to bring the Nuncio's bible with him, and went outside into the dark night with three priests who walked with him the fifty paces to the front gate; when he reached the front gate, a "gigantic, enormous" American soldier lunged at Noriega, described as "a broken man", and a number of other soldiers also tackled him to the ground and began searching his effects. His wrists were taped behind his back and he was bundled into a waiting American helicopter which took him to Howard Air Force Base.
Monsignor Laboa later told the press that he was proud at having "outwitted" Noriega and convincing him to surrender himself to the Americans, noting "I'm better at psychology".
Read more about this topic: Operation Nifty Package
Famous quotes containing the word surrender:
“Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another’s keeping.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)