Ashland June 2016

Page 20 Local Town Pages www.ashlandtownnews.com June 2016
Ashland Travels
An Unofficial Guided Tour of Noriega’s Estate
The estate had been a self-sufficient fortress
with an escape tunnel.
By Howard Axelrod,
Contributing Writer
During the period from 1983
to 1989, Manuel Noriega was one
of the wealthiest and most powerful
dictators, arms dealers and
drug lords in the world. After US
forces invaded Panama in 1989,
extradited, prosecuted and jailed
him, he is now wasting away, at
the age of 81, in a federal prison
in Panama.
This guy was no Boy Scout.
The US jury tried Noriega on
eight counts of racketeering, conspiracy,
and cocaine smuggling.
He was sentenced to 40 years in
prison (later reduced to 30). Twice
turned down for parole, he was
released from prison in 2007.
France subsequently extradited
and convicted him of murder and
money laundering, sentencing
him to a seven-year prison term.
A conditional release was granted
on Sept. 23, 2011 for Noriega to
be extradited once again, this time
to serve 20 years in prison in his
native Panama. He returned to
Panama on December 11, 2011.
He will most likely spend the rest
of his life here behind bars.
Private Guided Tour
In 2002 my wife Nancy and I
took a private guided tour of Panama.
While in Panama City our
guide and driver Mario stopped
our vehicle to show us the exterior
of the Noriega Estate, which is no
longer occupied, and is off limits
to the public. Our driver began
chatting with the rather large and
scary-looking military guard on
duty. The guard looked ‘right out
of central casting,’ complete with
facial scars. As it turned out, our
driver had once worked in the
Noriega regime as an aerial photographer.
As such, the guard on
duty apparently felt some bond of
trust and comradeship with him.
Sensing a way to make a few quick
US greenbacks, the guard—after
looking around carefully—asked
us if we would like to see the inside
of the estate and grounds.
Now clearly, this is not ‘legit,’ and
we all knew it. Mario, a licensed,
professional guide of 17 years, said
that such an invitation is absolutely
unimaginable.
The next thing we knew, the estate
guard, a former officer under
The ceramic tile nameplate on the
front gate of the estate/fortress.
the Noriega regime in the 80s,
ushered us inside, padlocking the
iron gate behind us. I remember
thinking that the closing gate had
a sound similar to that of a jail
cell swinging shut. He then proceeded
to give us a private guided
tour of the estate. We exchanged
pleasantries as best as possible. He
spoke little English, and we spoke
little Spanish. I flattered him by
complementing him on all of
the colorful medals and patches,
which he displayed proudly on
his military uniform. My wife followed
my cue and did the same.
He re-payed us with a smile.
Have you ever had the feeling
you were in a place you simply
did not belong? The feeling was
palpable and pervasive. My wife
and I were tense, and felt that at
any moment we would be apprehended
and swept off to a Panamanian
jail cell. Clearly we did not
belong here! This was not a tourist
attraction, and the military guard
was certainly not stationed there to
give private tours. Gradually, we
relaxed a bit and we began to take
in everything around us. I asked if
taking photographs was OK, and
to my amazement the guard said
yes.
The Noriega estate is in disrepair,
as it had not had any maintenance
in over a decade. A thick
layer of dust covered the interior.
Boards are falling off the side of
the house, wooden decking is
rotting, and many wooden stairs
were broken. Clearly, this was not
a place designed for the public to
visit.
Floor-by-Floor Tour
On the first floor we toured
Noriega’s private movie theater,
barbecue area and bar. Some
wine bottles, covered with dust,
were still in the rack. We examined
these, and it was clear that the
dictator had a taste for fine French
Grand Crus.
On the second floor we found
The fountains in front of the main house have been turned off for over
a decade.
Noriega’s private beauty salon, including his suitcases and suits.
The personal desk of General Noriega.
ourselves in Noriega’s office and
study. Almost every item was
marked with an inventory tag.
There had once been an undertaking
to turn the estate and
grounds into a museum, and as
such everything had been inventoried
and tagged. The museum
never materialized. We saw
Noriega’s desk and chair, and the
guard even pulled out the former
dictator’s scrapbook, complete
with mementos and photos from
his daughter’s wedding! As we
(Photos/Howard Axelrod)
looked through this scrapbook, I
kept thinking, “Should we really
be looking at this? Is this ethically
and morally right? Were we invading
another person’s privacy?
Does it really matter that he was
a convicted, international criminal
and had not been here in over a
decade?”
I felt conflicted but was afraid to
offend the guard. It was unbelievable
to be looking at the personal
belongings in the private office
and on the personal desk, where
one of the wealthiest and most
powerful dictators and criminals
in the world once sat. The guard
invited me to sit in the General’s
desk chair, and shivers ran up my
spine. I graciously declined. I felt
that sitting in this chair was somehow
going too far. Opening and
closing drawers and cabinets, our
host showed us many of Noriega’s
personal possessions.
During the time in his office,
we felt like grave robbers, at times
almost expecting to be caught. I
snapped photos inside using flash,
as the only light was that which
entered through windows covered
with a thick layer of dust. The
electricity and water service had
been disconnected long ago.
The guard then reached into a
dusty bookcase, and pulled down
a paperback copy of a book that
had been written by Felicidad Sieiro
de Noriega, the General’s wife,
an educated woman, and a professor
at the University of Panama at
the time of publication (1968). Los
Indio’s Guaymies – Frente al problema
educativo y cultural was a study of the
Guaymie Indians, one of Panama’s
indigenous tribes. The pages
of the book had yellowed with
age. Some 20 or so identical copies
were in the bookcase, all covered
in dust. Apparently the ex-dictator
would present these as gifts to his
guests. He was proud of his educated
and accomplished wife. The
guard handed my wife Nancy the
book and said, “I have something
for you, if you have something for
me . . . .” We got the me$$age, and
became the owner of this item.
On the left of the General’s
desk was a table where some 50
or so empty opened jewelry and
wrist watch boxes laid. Apparently
Noriega would keep very
expensive watches and jewelry on
hand to give as gifts to guests. The
rumor is that after Noriega had
been forcibly removed from the
estate by US troops, some 5 million
dollars in jewelry and watches
somehow ‘walked out the door.’
Additional rumors are that in
the storage areas of the mansion,
many 40-gallon drums had been
found, filled with money. I doubt
we are talking “ones” here!
A Self-Sufficient Fortress
We were then led by flashlight
to a basement room where old
electric generators and fresh water
NORIEGA’S ESTATE
continued on page 21