Nicaragua
According to sources currently available to the IRBDC, no
information could be found on the organization "Hope Portocarrero
de Somoza."
However, according to IRBDC sources currently available, Hope
Portocarrero de Somoza was the wife of Nicaragua's deposed
President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Anastasio Somoza Debayle was
ousted from power in 1979 by the Sandinistas. Hope Portocarrero
married her cousin Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1950 (Moritz 1978,
397). Upon marrying Anastasio Somoza Debayle, her name was changed
to Hope Portocarrero de Somoza.
Hope Portocarrero de Somoza was president of the Junta Nacional de
Asistencia y Previsión Social (JNAPS) (unofficially
translates to the National Board of Directors for Assistance and
Social Security) and the National Social Security Institute (IMSS)
(Diederich 1981, 132).
The Somoza family controlled the political party in power, the
Partido Liberal Nacionalista (PLN) (Nationalist Liberal Party)
before July 1979 and Hope Portocarrero de Somoza was apparently the
president of the PLN's women's wing (CPDH 8 Oct. 1991). However,
the CPDH was not aware of the existence of an organization known as
Hope Portocarrero de Somoza (
Ibid.).
By 1977, Hope Portocarrero de Somoza had gradually distanced
herself from her husband to the extent that "she made rare trips
from London, where she had set up housekeeping, for board meetings
of the Social Security Institute and other groups she headed"
(Diederich 1981, 137).
Hope Portocarrero de Somoza recently died of cancer (5 October
1991) at the age of 62 in Miami, Florida (The Associated Press 9
Oct. 1991).
No further information on the subject could be found in the
sources currently available to the IRBDC.
BibliographyThe Associated Press. 9 October 1991.
"Hope Somoza Baldocchi."
Comisión Permanente de Derechos
Humanos de Nicaragua (CPDH). 10 October 1991. Telephone Interview
with a Representative.
Diederich, Bernard. 1981. Somoza.
New York: Elsevier-Dutton Publishing Company., Inc.
Moritz, Charles ed. 1974. Current
Biography Yearbook 1974. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company.