MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cash scandal main witness guest at Casa Rosada reception

Antonini: Argentine officials promised full support 'to the very end'

The Miami federal court cash scandal case which involves Venezuela and Argentina is becoming increasingly embarrassing for the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Guido Antonini Wilson, the US-Venezuelan citizen who was caught in August 2007 by Argentine Customs with a brief case containing 800.000 US dollars, allegedly for the presidential campaign of Mrs. Kirchner, and now in under FBI protection in Miami, not only was a close friend of high posted Argentine and Venezuelan officials, he was also invited to Government House in Buenos Aires a day after the incident. In the tapes presented by the federal prosecution Antonini is heard talking with Argentine solicitor Guillermo Ledesma, --a crucial player in the first cover up attempt which never crystallized--, and describing the main chambers of the Casa Rosada where he was invited to an official reception given to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez by his host former president Nestor Kirchner. "The White chamber is actually small, it seems large but it's small" Antonini tells solicitor Ledesma during a meeting at the Jackson's Steakhouse in Fort Lauderdale on August 27, 2007. According to the first cover up attempt, Antonini would voluntarily present himself to Argentine authorities, defended by Ledesma, and face the charges of contraband and money laundering. After a reasonable time and once the elections had been won by Mrs. Cristina Kirchner he would most probably be set free. That was part of the arrangement. Furthermore in the tapes Antonini confesses that during the reception at the Casa Rosada Argentina's Planning Minister Julio De Vido, (one of former president Kirchner's most trusted aides and who remains in the ministerial post) and Claudio Uberti, (the Kirchner/Chavez most trusted link for financial affairs) promised him full support "to the very end". "De Vido came up to me and told me: you stood up for us (by keeping silent) so we are going to support you to the end". Uberti was also present, and it's significant since he was on board the private aircraft chartered by Argentine officials and apparently asked Antonini to take care of the brief case with the money, and of which he was not aware of its content. The aircraft was late in arriving in Buenos Aires and the new shift of Customs officials were not aware that the passengers of the chartered plane should have not been inspected. The brief case money was seized and Antonini was left to face the situation by himself. Ledesma had traveled to Miami on request of Moisés Maionica, a Venezuelan solicitor working for Venezuelan intelligence who was trying to convince Antonini to remain silent and return to Argentina to face trial. However by the time the cover up operation involving the Argentine solicitor was mounted Antonini had already talked with US authorities apparently more interested in remaining in the US than in trusting the Argentine government or legal system, or his Venezuelan cronies. The Argentine government version is that Antonini never was at Casa Rosada since his name does not figure in the guests registrar and "everybody visiting Casa Rosada (for security reasons) must register, full name, ID and motive of the visit". An argument recently repeated by an unabashed Argentine ministry of Justice on television. Actually Antonini's statement was originally supported by one of the secretaries that was also in the flight from Caracas and had been invited to the reception in Casa Rosada. From her high exposure post she was transferred to some other obscure office of the Argentine bureaucracy.