MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Suitcase scandal in limelight in spite of Kirchner and Chavez

Your suitcase? my suitcase? nobody suitcase...

Argentina's renowned anti-corruption crusader, lawyer Ricardo Monner Sans, urged the prosecution in the so-called suitcase scandal to investigate whether controls that led to the discovery of 800,000 dollars in possession of Venezuelan-US citizen Guido Antonini Wilson in Buenos Aires, also applied to other officials who arrived on the same plane.

The money was seized at Buenos Aires domestic airport after Antonini Wilson entered the country on board of the flight chartered by the Argentine state oil company Enarsa, reportedly landing in a military area usually not subjected to Customs controls. Antonini Wilson arrived on August 4 and left on August 8, two days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrived on a visit to Argentina. He was allowed to leave Argentina but later an Argentine court issued an international arrest warrant on smuggling charges. From Buenos Aires Antonini Wilson flew to Montevideo where he has been identified as a frequent visitor as advisor of a prefab house contract between Uruguay and Venezuela. The scandal has led to resignations in the two countries. Monner Sans, whose investigations led to jailing former president Carlos Menem for five months in 2000 on gun running charges, urged prosecutors to investigate a press report of an alleged connection of the money with the Santa Fe election campaign. He quoted a report published by the newspaper Perfil on Sunday that said that "a rumor in the political circles of Santa Fe province suggested that the money was destined to the election campaign" of the gubernatorial hopeful and former foreign minister Rafael Bielsa, who belongs to the Kirchner-led Victory Front. However, Bielsa, as minister, always stood clear of all links with the Venezuelan president. Monner Sans said that it was remarkable that the US-registered plane's permit to fly granted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had expired in May. He also said that it seemed strange that the plane landed in the southern sector of the Jorge Newbery airport, the only one without surveillance cameras. The case has led to the resignation of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA's Argentine unit chief Diego Uzcátegui Matheus and to the firing of Argentine Federal Planning Ministry official Claudio Uberti, both for allowing Antonini Wilson to board the flight. Chávez and President Néstor Kirchner said that they have nothing to hide in the case. Argentina's cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez has repeatedly declared that the final destination of the suitcase with the confiscated money was Montevideo.