BRIEFS: Real estate

Two former noriega properties to be auctioned

Víctor Arosemena/LA PRENSA

on the block: The government plans to auction two homes in the Altos del Golf neighborhood with ties to the former dictator.1100645

Later this month, the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (MEF) will auction off two of former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega’s properties located in the San Francisco area of the capital.

Both properties are found in the exclusive neighborhood of Altos del Golf, and have been assessed at a combined $6.1 million, according to information from the Dirección de Promoción y Ventas de Bienes of MEF.

Noriega and his family were occupying one of the two residences right up until the morning of Dec. 20, 1989, when U.S. troops descended on Panama and led an operation that would put an end to the six-year dictatorship.

The 3,245-square-meter estate will open the auction on Oct. 30 with an asking price of $4.3 million.

The other property, a 1,367-square-meter home on the corner of Avenida Santa Elena and Calle Gil Blas Tejeira, belongs to Sandra Noriega, the second eldest of Noriega’s three daughters. That house will carry an asking price of $1.8 million.

Sources close to the family, however, claim that the property is in the name of Sandra’s ex-husband Jean Rene Beauchamt and Sandra has said she can prove that she never lived there. Government officials allege that they found Sandra’s wedding dress in one of the home’s closets during a tour. That property will be auctioned on Oct. 31.