Operation Sand Flea
Encyclopedia
Operation Sand Flea was a series of training exercises for the December 1989 invasion
United States invasion of Panama
The United States Invasion of Panama, code-named Operation Just Cause, was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989. It occurred during the administration of U.S. President George H. W...

 of Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

 by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. These troop movements and practice assaults were disguised as training to defend the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 (a contingency then called Purple Storm
Operation Purple Storm
Operation Purple Storm was a series of United States Southern Command, or the United States Army South exercises in Panama in 1989 that aimed to both assert United States treaty rights and to conduct tactical rehearsals for Operation Just Cause. These exercises were claimed to be carried out to...

). Conducted in the summer of 1989, these seemingly endless movements, also known as "Freedom of Movement Drills," overwhelmed the ability of the Panamanians to observe, analyze and understand all the countless activities. In this way, this program desensitized the Panama Defense Force
Military of Panama
The Panamanian Public Forces are the national defense forces of Panama. Panama is the second country in Latin America to permanently abolish standing armies, leaving it with only small para-military forces. This came as a result of a US invasion that overthrew a military dictatorship which ruled...

(PDF) to the coming invasion.
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