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Hope Somoza Baldocchi, wife of former Nicaraguan leader

 
Published Oct. 9, 1991|Updated Oct. 14, 2005

Hope Somoza Baldocchi, the Tampa-born former wife of slain Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza, died over the weekend after a bout with cancer. She was 62. Dozens of Nicaraguan exiles attended her funeral Monday. Mrs. Somoza Baldocchi, who remarried after her husband was assassinated in Paraguay in 1980, was buried in the same Miami mausoleum where Somoza was buried 11 years ago.

Private security guards closed off the area around the mausoleum, allowing only family members and friends access to the ceremony.

Mrs. Somoza Baldocchi was born in Tampa as Hope Portocarrero. She first met Somoza, who was her cousin, when he and his brother, Luis, were polishing their English in 1937 as eighth-grade students at St. Leo Preparatory School in Pasco County. They married Dec. 20, 1950.

A longtime Miami resident, she lived on Key Biscayne with her second husband, Salvadoran millionaire Archie Baldocchi.

Family members say she died early Saturday.

Mrs. Somoza Baldocchi was remembered in Nicaragua as the primary booster of the national theater in Managua.