Resurrection

Military: Imprisoned just after Easter 1989 by Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, Kurt Muse found belief—and renewed life—on the night of his execution. For the first time, Muse, the first American hostage ever rescued by the Army’s elite Delta Force, shares the story of the faith that lit the fire that freed a nation | Lynn Vincent

Ross McDermott for WORLD

The granite-faced interrogator burst into the room flanked by a pair of enforcers. Smirking, the interrogator held a piece of paper in his hand.

"How long did you think you could keep your secret, Mr. Muse?" he asked in Spanish.

Kurt Muse, an American citizen, sat on a hard metal chair in a cramped office of the National Department of Investigations (DENI), General Manuel Noriega's secret police. Muse had lost track of time. Noriega's interrogators had kept him awake for at least two days and two nights, though it could've been longer. He knew the dictator's Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) had arrested him on April 5, 1989. But the watch he was now wearing didn't keep the date, and the hands spun without meaning.