The United States has completed withdrawal of its military force that invaded Panama on Dec. 20, the White House said today. The U.S. troop strength in Panama is at 13,504, below the 13,597 stationed in the Central American nation before the invasion, said presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. More than 14,000 troops had been rushed from bases in the United States for the invasion. While the troop levels have fluctuated by a few thousand over recent years, the 13,000 level is considered in the normal range, he said. That includes, however, the 2,000 extra personnel President Bush sent to Panama following an election last May 7 that was invalidated by now-deposed Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. ``The efforts of all the U.S. military personnel in Panama were key to helping put Panama on the road to democracy,'' Fitzwater told reporters. ``The president commends the efforts of these brave men and women. Their task is something of which all men and women should be proud.'' The Panama invasion resulted in the combat deaths of 23 U.S. soldiers and the wounding of 324, with 314 Panamanian troops killed and 124 wounded, according to Pentagon figures. In addition, 202 civilians were killed in the fighting. The United States has no plans to withdraw its permanent force in Panama. However, the troops are shifting their emphasis from the traditional one of concentrating on the Panama Canal to help train a new national police force for Panama. Noriega's Panamanian Defense Force was effectively put out of business by the invasion and his ouster, but thousands of its members have signed up for the new police force. Fitzwater said the number of U.S. troops will likely continue to fluctuate in the years to come. Presence of the invasion force was a thorn in the side of Panama's Latin American neighbors who saw the invasion as an unwarranted use of U.S. muscle. President Alan Garcia of Peru initially said he would not attend this Thursday's drug summit in Colombia with President Bush as long as the invasion troops remained. Last week, however, as the U.S. troop withdrawal continued, he announced he would attend.
