MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez and Kirchner linked to cash scandal cover up operation

Antonini the U$S 800.000 man

On the second day of the Miami federal trial involving an international cash scandal and attempts to conceal the origin of the money, jurors were able to listen to recordings which establish the close links between the presidents of Argentina and Venezuela and attempts to cover up the mishap.

Guido Antonini Wilson, the US-Venezuelan citizen who carried the suitcase which was seized at a Buenos Aires airport August 2007 said the 800.000 US dollars actually belonged to Claudio Uberti, an Argentine official, close associate of then President Nestor Kirchner and the man responsible for all trade and financial liaisons with the Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez. In the first day of hearings jurors were told by the prosecution that the 800.000 US dollars in 50 dollar bills were effectively sent to help with the financing of Mrs. Cristina Kirchner campaign that last October was voted to succeed her husband as Argentina's president. On Wednesday jurors were also told that President Chavez personally participated in meetings with the country's Intelligence chief and the CEO of Venezuela's oil corporation PDVSA, from where the money came, to decide on a strategy to cover up the whole operation and how to proceed with Argentina. Solicitor Moises Maionaca, one of the indicted for allegedly acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the US, (with the purpose of convincing Antonini not to reveal the origin of the money) said that the governments of Argentina and Venezuela had agreed to solve the electoral campaign cash flow scandal without having the main culprit going to prison. "We discussed the legal strategy, naming a solicitor to defend Antonini in Argentina, and then arrange the trial as had been planned by both governments", said Maionaca. This apparently was discussed in the Miami restaurant "Novecento Brickell" with the Venezuelan businessmen Franklin Duran and Carlos Kauffman. "Argentina is holding elections October 28 and there's a risk Cristina might not win, but we must assume the risk", Duran is heard talking about the cover up operation in a tape recorded by the FBI and presented by the prosecution in the Miami court. "If Cristina does not win they are going to bat you hard", Duran tells Antonini in the same tape. "The purpose was to center the problem in Argentina, have Antonini contract a solicitor and organize his defense which would be financed by the Venezuelan government via PDVSA", added Duran. From Caracas President Chavez dismissed the accusations aired in the courtroom as a "show". He said the trial was an example of how "the US Empire is attacking Venezuela again". Chavez spokes in a televised speech on Wednesday after prosecution witness in Miami testified that the president had ordered the Intelligence agency to oversee the handling of the international cash scandal. Venezuelan businessman Franklin Duran is charged with acting as an unregistered agent for Venezuela in a scheme to conceal the source of 800,000 in political cash flown into Argentina in a suitcase last year. In Buenos Aires US embassy sources indicated that "the Judiciary is independent" and "this trial is as any other". "Under the US legal system, federal prosecutors work independently to protect the laws of the US. This is normal procedure under the federal system and the ruling will result from evidence presented", added the source quoted in the Buenos Aires press. The trial will have the normal media coverage of all judicial cases and "this has nothing to do with US/Argentina relations which are strong, based on shared values and common interests".