The Panama invasion of 1989 didn’t end the way anyone expected. Twenty-seven thousand American troops surrounded one dictator hiding in the Vatican embassy. It took weeks of blasting rock music and a military siege to force Manuel Noriega’s surrender.

Craig Baird breaks down how the CIA’s former asset became America’s target, the casualties nobody talks about (23 American soldiers, possibly thousands of Panamanians), and why Canada stood alone as the only nation in the Americas to publicly back the operation. Shane and Craig trace the parallels to Venezuela while examining what made Panama different: from the weeks-long Vatican embassy standoff to the troops blasting Metallica outside Noriega’s door.

Discover why Brian Mulroney got the call the night before it happened, how history forgets invasions this messy, and what happens when 27,000 troops can’t immediately capture one man. The siege, the music, the geopolitical mess: it’s all here.

GUEST:Craig Baird | canadaehx.com

Originally aired on2026-01-08