Take a closer look now at the facts around the US invasion of Panama in 1989.

On December 20, 1989, some 2,600 US troops invaded Panama in order to depose the military dictator General Manuel Noriega.

Noriega surrendered three days later and was taken to the US where he was convicted of drug trafficking.

Then US President George H.W. Bush said the invasion was necessary in order to safeguard the lives of Americans living in Panama. A number of US military bases and personnel were stationed along the Panama Canal at the time of the attack.

But regional experts say the invasion was part of a wider US effort to maintain US hegemony in Central and South America.

The United Nations claims around five hundred civilians died in the invasion. But the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights says the death toll may have reached as high as 3,000.