Word: somoza
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...would also cancel the country's $5.1 million debt to Israel and Argentina for arms purchased by Somoza...
Washington hopes that the new government's need for assistance in rebuilding its shattered society will keep the junta on a moderate course. The Carter Administration clearly is trying to strengthen the tenuous relationship with the new government that developed during the long negotiations that led to Somoza's abdication. At his Washington press conference last week, President Carter said it was a mistake for Americans to assume that every abrupt change in the hemisphere is somehow "the result of secret, massive Cuban intervention." As for the future, he said, "we will use our efforts in a proper...
...Sure I've got enough to live on," conceded Tacho Somoza, as he fled Nicaragua for his $1 million home-in-exile in Miami Beach. By his own reckoning, the ex-dictator's uncertain future would be cushioned by about $20 million (out of his $100 million fortune) that he had managed to stash outside the country. To American experts who have studied Somoza's corrupt regime, both estimates, however, appeared surprisingly low. Most valuations of the dynasty's holdings were between $500 million and $1 billion; they included Nicaragua's national air line, Lanica...
That empire grew from a modest beginning. When he seized power in 1933, Tacho's father, Anastasio Somoza García, had only a near bankrupt coffee farm to his name. Little by little, he added to his holdings. If he saw a plantation he admired, for example, Somoza García made its owner an offer he dared not refuse, usually about half the property's real value. Often as not, the owner presented the land as a gift. By the time of his assassination in 1956, Somoza García was worth about $150 million...
...profit. Moving into the banking field with ownership of the Banco de Centroamerica, he heavily mortgaged his properties in Nicaragua in order to make available large amounts of cash. These funds were then shuttled through a network of interlocking companies in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Through such maneuvering, Somoza acquired his mansion in Miami Beach, which is officially owned by a company based in the Virgin Islands, two posh condominiums in Coconut Grove for his estranged American-born wife Hope, and a luxurious apartment for his girlfriend Dinorah Sampson. Besides this choice real estate, Somoza's enterprises include...