Noriega hospitalized for possible stroke

PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was hospitalized in Panama City after he was diagnosed with a possible stroke, the National Police said.

A police statement said Noriega, who turns 78 Saturday, was taken "from his cell in the El Renacer Penitentiary Center, located about [19 miles] from the capital, to the Santo Tomas Hospital" Sunday, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported.

Franklin Vergara, Panama's health minister, said the former general's condition was found "normal" after he underwent a battery of tests, but he would be kept under hospital observation for at least a day.

Noriega "is conscious, oriented; he has not had any injury with any effect" but would undergo testing after 24 hours to determine "if he has any vascular problem that may be permanent," Vergara said.

Noriega, the de facto leader of Panama from 1983 to 1989, was returned to the Central American country Dec. 11 after serving 21 years in U.S. and French prisons for drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega, deposed during a U.S. invasion in 1989, was convicted of numerous crimes and faces a prison sentence of 60 years Panama.