The Culmination

The Culmination

1990 9 September 6 The Culmination (361) “Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide.”

Manuel Antonio Noriega, having seized power in Panama after a military coup, set himself up as Panama’s dictator. With his newly acquired power, he accumulated vast fortunes for himself. But his policies enraged America, which in turn sent its army into Panama in December, 1989. General Noriega fled his grand palace to seek refuge in the Vatican embassy. But this piece of strategy did no help him. Under pressure from the USA, the Vatican embassy had to hand over General Noriega to the American soldiers on January 3,1990. (The Times of India, January 6,1990)

There was a great lesson in that scene of January 3 when, in the dead of night, General Noriega, a defeated man, came out of the Vatican mission, surrendered to the US troops and was instantly handcuffed. He was then sent to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

According to the AP reporter, he was, in the end, alone. With, family, friends cronies, lovers, money and admiring crowds all, gone, the former strongman had no place to turn.

According to another commentator, General Noriega must have lived his life as if he were in a tunnel – alone on the inside and alone on the outside.

Even the priests who granted him asylum at the Vatican mission had reminded him that he was an unwelcome guest.

For four out of his 10 days inside the embassy , the US soldiers had bombarded him with rock, rap and country music, taunting him with such tunes as “Voodoo Child, your’re no good,” reminding him he had “nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.”

This story of General Noriega is the story of all men. What General Noriega faced in this world is going to be faced by all men in the next. Finally, every single human being will be taken prisoner and produced in the court of God. The time is not very far off when all the things of the world will fall away from believers and non-believers alike. All men are going to be faced with a situation in which they feel they have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.