Manuel Noriega

And I don't go back to Panama for a few months.

But I'm there writing the book.

I'm drafting it up.

I sort of have my own space.

I'm

I'm getting like, you know, the way when you start writing a book, you have like your first draft and it's like a skeleton draft.

And, you know, it just doesn't feel right.

And you know that, you know, things are missing like here and there.

The good feeling that I got when I finished my first draft was like, this reads like exactly the way he would want me to write it.

You know, it's like Noriega was my best friend.

Like he was...

this guy who like was totally taken advantage of and there's a lot of merit to that but like we didn't talk about like he didn't talk about like anything like illicit or anything like really terrible right so i start going out on my own to interview all these people um i interviewed this journalist this guy richard coster

He's based out of Panama, but he's an American guy.

He used to be a journalist for Newsweek, based out of Washington, D.C.

He's arguably the most knowledgeable American journalist in Central America.

He just knows everything.

And he was there for the Noriega regime and actively reported on it.

he and i meet he tells me his side of things and i tell him about the book and he basically tells me he's like listen this entire subject that you're that you're covering panama noriega iran contra um it's something that a lot of people know a little about but nobody knows everything he said he said that um what sort of exists here are people with different realities so carlos's reality during this time

is much different to an American soldier who was sent to Panama during the invasion.

They knew that they were there to oust a dictator, whereas Carlos' story, his reason for existing was to aid Noriega in...