Career
He was a presidential candidate for the Party of the Democratic Revolution in the 1989 presidential election. The following year, he stood as the party"s presidential candidate. Future Party of the Democratic Revolution president Ernesto Pérez Balladares served as his campaign manager.
After the voting concluded, international observers reported that Endara"s coalition was leading by a 3-to-1 margin, but the results were annulled by the Noriega government before counting was complete.
However, by this time Duque knew he had been comprehensively defeated by Endara and refused to go along. The next day, Endara and one of his running mates, Guillermo Ford, were badly beaten by a detachment of Dignity Battalions, a paramilitary group supporting Noriega.
Endara was struck with an iron club and was briefly hospitalized, receiving eight stitches. Images of the attack on Endara and Ford were carried by media around the world, and were credited with leading up to the United States invasion that would soon follow.
Duque was an opponent of the 1989 United States invasion of Panama which deposed Noriega, calling it "the biggest error" and urging "nationalist parties" to battle United States forces.
Several months after the invasion, United States federal prosecutors accused Duque"s company, Transit South America, of funneling millions of dollars in kickbacks to the former ruler from a coffee-smuggling operation. In 1999, he worked on the campaign of Party of the Democratic Revolution presidential candidate Martín Torrijos, son of former military ruler Omar Torrijos.
