Noriega

At the time, the U.S. still controlled the Canal Zone, but dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, an erstwhile CIA operative and indicted drug trafficker, increasingly found himself in American crosshairs, including on the United States’ most-wanted list.

It evokes memories of the 1989 US invasion of Panama to depose de facto ruler General Manuel Noriega, a conflict that lasted several weeks and rapidly overwhelmed Panamanian forces.

"I was the political leader of the opposition when Noriega said he was going to kill all the leaders of the opposition if the US were to invade," recalled former Panama congressman Edwin Cabrera, speaking to the BBC by the locks of the canal's Pacific entrance.

Spencer, who disdained Washington and refused to live there, had a few small brushes with controversy involving consulting work — “influence peddling,” as he candidly called it — for clients including apartheid-era South Africa and the Panamanian government of dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.

After monitoring presidential voting in Panama in 1989, he declared that Manuel Noriega had rigged the election.