Like Bob Dylan, General Manuel Noriega is disappointing us with lackluster work in the twilight of his career. His latest effort–his long-awaited trial–doesn’t just seem like it’s lasting for months, it really is lasting for months. Who cares about the boring details of workaday drug smuggling? You can hear better government corruption stories anytime Walter Jacobson films a city garbage crew. No, the only interesting thing about the Noriega trial is voodoo.
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People reported that Dibble found a freezer in one of Noriega’s headquarters holding “more than 30 trabajos, black-magic totems directed at Noriega’s ‘enemies,’ among them George Bush, Ronald Reagan . . . and William Hoeveler.” Dibble said the trabajos “were put into the freezer as a means of ‘freezing’ the actions of the person.” For the same purpose, there was also a photo of Reagan covered with red candle wax. These types of artifacts can be attributed to a number of so-called “occult” religions, such as Haitian voodoo or Palo Mayombe. More specifically, People reported that Noriega had an altar to a saint of the Santeria religion. The altar held, among other things, a lock of the general’s hair.
“Santeria” means the worship of saints, writes author Migene Gonzalez-Wippler in Rituals and Spells of Santeria. This Afro-Cuban religion originated with the Yorubas of Nigeria, who mixed in elements of Catholicism after they were brought to Cuba as slaves. The Yoruba slaves practiced their religion by disguising their gods, identifying them with various Catholic saints. When that deception was discovered by white owners, the religion and its rituals became strict secrets, which they still are.
After the initial disclaimer, which Haitians might well dispute, Hector concentrated on the Noriega case. “He has heard from a babalawo in Miami that there was a babalawo seeing Noriega in Panama,” said Ida. “His friend in Miami knows him. Hector says just because you have a babalawo that you see doesn’t mean he can give you power to do whatever you want. He can tell you of the dangers ahead in your life. Some people follow the advice, and some people don’t. And if you don’t”–she shrugged–“things happen. As far as Hector knows, Noriega didn’t obey what the babalawo told him.”
Thornburgh has experienced serious and rather mysterious setbacks at work this year. He quit his attorney-general job to run for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, which should have been a no-brainer for him. Thornburgh is a former two-term Pennsylvania governor, and he began with a 40-point lead in the polls. Still he managed to lose resoundingly to Democrat Harris Wofford, whose usual media description was “little-known.” The Senate race was the first run for elective office for Wofford, a liberal in a conservative state that hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1962. So voodoo looks plausible, though given Thornburgh’s diehard Reaganite positions on the campaign trail, it might have been voodoo economics. It’s not clear whether Thornburgh realizes the possible supernatural cause of his political defeat; he wouldn’t return calls to his Pittsburgh law office, and as a private citizen he no longer has any media spokesmen to comment for him.
The procedure sounds complicated, but Thornburgh and Judge Hoeveler might be interested to know that it can easily be fitted into a busy professional schedule. “If they’ve been cursed,” says Rodriguez, “everything can be taken away in about an hour.”
