Noriega had planned to declare Duque the winner regardless of the actual results; indeed, his cronies had prepared phony tally sheets to take to the district centers.

[5] Another factor that adversely affected the 1989 electoral process, as reported to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, was the predicament of various political leaders who had been forced to leave the country.

The Noriega government adopted a practice of detaining and harassing the political opposition, seizing their property and forcing them to leave the country.

The image of Ford running to safety with his guayabera coated in blood, displayed on the cover of the May 22, 1989, Time magazine,[8] brought worldwide attention to Noriega's regime.

[9] The leader of the battalions, appointed by Noriega, was Benjamin Colamarco, who would become Minister of Public Works under President Martín Torrijos' administration.

In a 1989 interview with The New York Times, U.S. general Maxwell R. Thurman said, referring to the Dignity Battalions, "I am looking inward because I have the security responsibility for all Panama therefore I don't want the dingbats blowing their way through the embassy.