ABSTRACT

In the early hours of 20 December 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, an incursion into the Republic of Panama. This event culminated a two-and-a-half year deterioration of relations between the US and Panama. Notwithstanding extremely significant developments elsewhere in the international system, particularly in the USSR and other Warsaw Pact states, the global print and electronic media dedicated increasingly extensive attention to the protracted crisis between Washington and Panama, which culminated in the US incursion, the capture of the de-facto head of the Panamanian government, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the establishment of a new government headed by President Guillermo Endara. Indeed, the media played a series of important roles throughout the gradually escalating US-Panamanian confrontation.