Somoza’s vast wealth

Press, 19 July 1979, Page 6

Somoza’s vast wealth

I NZPA Managua • The former Nicaraguan 'President, Anastasio Somoza, j has one of the largest personal fortunes in the world, j informed sources in Managua said here. ' The fortune may add up Ito between $5OO million and '520,000 million, though any precise figure is almost impossible to come by, the 'sources say. As well as his vast private interests in Nicaragua’s economy, the former President also has substantial interests abroad. According to rumour. General Somoza had mortgaged a number of his properties in Nicaragua in recent months as the tide of battle I began to turn against his regime. A plantation he owned in neighbouring Costa Rica. “El Murcielago.” was meanwhile nationalised by the Costa j Rican Government. General I Somoza received $1 milliop ias compensation, though experts valued the property at 10 times that sum. Among the Somoza pro-i perties are plantations and, factories for processing , sugar, coffee, cotton, rice.! and wheat, as well as slaughterhouses, textile factories, construction equip'ment, a newspaper, a TV network, and a bank. He owns the sugar plantation and refinery of El Montelimar, the largest in the country. Another property complex of his known as Dolores, contains machinery that is alone worth $2O million. It is also said that the ' general has many additional millions of dollars salted away in the form of ini vestments in American