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Noriega’s friends in Panama restoring his old mansion? Howcum? Wha’s da undastory?

Friday, April 4th, 2008
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Noriega’s friends in Panama restoring his old mansion, even though the governmnent expropriated it
Theoretically, the Altos de Golf mansion that General Manuel Antonio Noriega once called his own but which has been an abandoned ruin since the 1989 US invasion belongs to the Panamanian people and is held on the public behalf by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The property was expropriated after long procedures that determined that its purchase was the fruit of illegal activity.

Ah, but today’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Héctor Alexander, used to be the Noriega dictatorship’s Minister of Planning and Economic Policy. And thus there was no objection from the ministry that holds title to the property when on August 18 a work crew supervised by Noriega’s lawyer, Julio Berríos, arrived at the house and began to paint, clear weeds and debris and make repairs. Berríos told a reporter for El Panama America that he would file a motion for the house to be returned to the general, claiming that he can prove that Noriega bought it with money he earned as an army officer.

Who’s paying for the renovation? Nobody who knows is willing to say, but as the laborers worked one of Noriega’s old friends, journalist Escolastico “Fulele” Calvo showed up to watch.

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