By Brianna Morris-Grant, ABC
Photo: STF / AFP
When the United States struck Venezuela it came with fighter jets, bombers, and drone strikes.
But the last time one of the most powerful countries in the world marched across borders and captured another Latin American leader it was with 27,000 troops, stealth fighters, gunships - and heavy metal music.
It has been just a tick over 36 years since the US invaded Panama and arrested its de facto ruler General Manuel Noriega.
The US framing of that incident - a corrupt dictator coming face to face with American justice - has sparked parallels to the military operation in Venezuela.
Operation Just Cause and a rapid snowball effect
The US dubbed its 1989 invasion Operation Just Cause.
In February 1988, General Noriega had been indicted by a Miami court of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.
He had been in power in Panama since the early 1980s using a series of puppet leaders to maintain his de facto ruler status.
Then-US president Ronald Reagan offered him a deal - relinquish power and leave Panama, and the drug charges would be dropped.
Noriega had no intention of leaving.
Things began to snowball.
Noriega annulled the 1989 Panamanian general elections
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