World: Somoza's Legacy of Greed

"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, its major shipping company, the Mamenic Line, perhaps 25% of its best farm land,...

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