City officials plan to turn Manuel Noriega's $1.5 million home here into a museum and tourist attraction - if they can wrest control of it from his wife.
Panama City has set aside $150,000 in next year's budget to restore the deposed strongman's former residence and turn it into a museum, a city spokesman said.But any work will be delayed until Panamanian officials can wrest control of it from Felicidad Noriega, who now lives in the Dominican Republic and holds title to most of her husband's holdings.
Noriega was convicted on racketeering, money-laundering and drug-trafficking charges in Miami last April and is serving a 40-year sentence in a U.S. prison.
The house, in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, is valued at about $1.5 million and contains a wide array of oriental furniture, religious statues, brass ornaments and other items Noriega collected.
Some officials have complained that spending anything on it would be a waste, but Panama's tourism director Anel Beliz disagreed. "We should set up the home as a museum for two purposes.
"One, to show how he lived and set an example of what we shouldn't do. And the most important thing is to have it as a tourist attraction," Beliz said.