Even the Panamanian representative to the Vatican, Aquilino Villamonte Ramos, decried the action to Catholic News Service on the day of the invasion saying: "The United States cannot grab everything it wants." The Panamanian Catholic bishops, who had publicly condemned Noriega and his power grab, also criticized the military action. They called it "a deep wound inflicted on us a free and sovereign nation."

During the invasion Noriega escaped harm, and though he was initially in hiding, he popped up at the Vatican nunciature in Panama Dec. 24, 1989, seeking sanctuary. Vatican officials said they agreed to temporarily protect him to prevent more violence but convinced Noriega to consider his options: facing the courts and wrath of Panama or the U.S. He chose to face his fate in the United States and surrendered Jan. 3, 1990, but not before attending Mass at the nunciature and then asking for a souvenir. Officials gave him a Bible. Bush thanked the Vatican for its role in the volatile situation.

Since then, Noriega spent time in courts and prisons in the U.S. and France, where he was convicted on a variety of charges related to drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. In 2011, he was extradited from France, where he was serving time, to Panama, where was tried and convicted of human rights violations.

Earlier this year he was granted house arrest to prepare for and recuperate from an operation to remove a brain tumor. He reportedly died from a complication that resulted after the surgery.

News agencies in Panama reported that his daughters, Thays, Sandra and Lorena, along with grandchildren, were nearby when he died, and said his family asked for privacy and would not release plans for his funeral. Although Noriega was baptized Catholic, he is said to have become an evangelical Christian while in prison in the U.S.