FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2011 file photo, Panama's ex-dictator Manuel Noriega is pushed in a wheelchair by a police officer inside El Renacer prison on the outskirts of Panama City. Noriega, 83, is in critical condition after undergoing two brain surgeries Tuesday, March 7, 2017. Noriega underwent the first procedure Tuesday morning to remove a benign tumor from his brain. But after that surgery, doctors discovered a hemorrhage that forced them to go back in that afternoon, his daughters and lawyer said. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)
The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY (AP) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was in critical condition and sedated in a hospital's intensive care unit Wednesday after undergoing two brain surgeries.
Noriega, 83, underwent the first procedure Tuesday morning to remove a benign tumor from his brain. But after that surgery, doctors discovered a hemorrhage that forced them to go back in that afternoon, his daughters and lawyer said.
Noriega attorney Ezra Angel said doctors succeeded in stopping the bleeding during the second procedure, and Noriega was returned to intensive care.
"His condition has not improved, nor has it worsened," Angel said Wednesday.
Officials at the Santo Tomas public hospital in Panama City did not comment or return calls.
The tumor was detected in the months after Noriega returned to Panama in December 2011 and was imprisoned for corruption and the killings of political opponents during his reign in the 1980s.
Doctors have said it grew unexpectedly recently and threatened the life of the former dictator, who has also suffered from vascular ailments and uses a wheelchair.
Noriega was transferred from prison to house arrest Jan. 29 to prepare for the procedure, which was originally scheduled for mid-February.
The former general ruled Panama with an iron fist in 1983-89. He was ousted by a U.S. invasion in 1989 and jailed for years in the United States on drug charges.
He was then imprisoned in France for money laundering, before being returned in 2011 to Panama, where he had already been convicted in absentia.
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2017, file photo, Panamanian ex-dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, wearing a red baseball cap, arrives after being placed under house arrest for three months in Panama City. Noriega has been hospitalized to undergo surgery to remove a benign tumor from his brain. Thays Noriega, one of his daughters, said surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, March 6. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco, File)
The Associated Press
A lawyer for Panama's jailed former strongman Manuel Noriega talks to the press outside the Santo Tomas public hospital in Panama City Panama City, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. The former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega suffered a hemorrhage after surgery to remove a benign brain tumor and was in critical condition, his daughters reported. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
The Associated Press
Journalist stand outside entrance of the Santo Tomas public hospital after it was reported that former strongman Manuel Noriega's health has turned for the worse, in Panama City Panama City, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. Noriega suffered a hemorrhage after surgery to remove a benign brain tumor and was in critical condition, his daughters reported. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
The Associated Press