Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Miami Venezuelan Maletagate trial part V: La Nacion charges PDVSA maletagate airplane was carrying US$ 5 million Argentinean newspaper La Nacion charges today in an investigative article that the infamous plane chartered by PDVSA which arrived in Argentina carrying Guido Antonini and his US$ 800,000 in a suitcase, was actually carrying the whopping amount of US$ 5 million in cash. According to La Nacion, PDVSA's Vice President Diego Uzcategui had asked his son Daniel and Guido Antonini were the remainder US$ 4.2 million was and others heard the question. Moreover, charges La Nacion, in the dialogues in the Miami trial, the witnesses do not talk about "the suitcase" but "the suitcases" in plural, a subtle point noted by the reporters investigating if there was more cash in the plane. In one dialogue Antonini asks why Rafael Ramirez is washing his hands now and Duran replies: "He is not washing his hands, he can no longer was his hands. Because it was his assistant who carried the suitcases to the plane". Prosecutor Thomas Mulvihil has mentioned that there were other funds sent to the Kirchner's campaign but has not expanded on that point. According to the sources of la Nacion, the rest of the cash was in a large suitcase (or two) and not a carry on like the one taken away from Antonini. La Nacion also identifies Rafael Ramirez' assistant, the man in charge of the suitcases as a man whose last name is Reiter. In another dialogue Antonini notes that he was one passenger who was given "one" suitcase. Later, Antonini also says that he has made lots of those trips. This makes a lot more sense. One of the things I never quite understood was why risk sending US$800,000 like that an amount that would have little impact in the campaign. You had to send an awful lot of airplanes to have an impact. It also explains why the plane was chartered. Enarsa and PDVSA had a joint venture which had no operations or cash flow, it made little sense to rent a jet for that flight, there was no urgency or very high ranking officials involved. Recall Claudio Uberti was in charge of toll roads in Argentina and he was the highest ranking person in the fligtht.But the US$ 5 million certainly justified it! We should learn more about this in the upcoming days, showing the degree of corruption and unethical behavior in the leaders of the Bolivarian and Argentinean robolutions. Heads up PMB! 11:53:13 AM    comment []

How Maletagate, Chavez theatrics and US Treasury sanctions are all connected So much stuff, so little time. The last 72 hours have been whirlwind of events and information to digest, but it becomes simply impossible to write about everything going on. While everyone has concentrated on Chavez kicking out the US Ambassador, nobody seems to wonder why it is that Hugo always kicks out Ambassadors over fuzzy issues which you can blame on anyone but the Ambassador, but continues having relations, commercial and otherwise with the respective countries, only to later kiss and make up in each case. The answer is obvious; because Chavez would not dare t break relations that could have a real impact. In fact, the silly communiqué issued by the Foreign Minister gives Chavez 72 hours to leave the country from almost the second the autocrat ordered it, but wait…this just in… US Ambassador Frank Duddy was not in Venezuela and the Chavez administration knew it, but you have to get theatrical over the whole thing and that was all they were really doing. And from all that I have gathered, it was all first class theater. You see, it appears as if somehow with the aid of the Cuban G2, the Chavez Government got wind of the sanctions against the heads of the Civilian and Military Intelligence services of Venezuela and Chavez’ Minister of the Interior (when he found out what was coming he removed him). Thus, in the face of this possibility Chavez decided to act first, to make it look as if the sanctions were coming in retaliation to Chavez’ expulsion of Ambassador Duddy and his not so friendly speech on nationwide TV. Thus, while Chavez may be indeed planning to stop the elections somehow, and we may see a link to this accusation of someone trying to ill him as the basis for arrests that will lead to a scenario of no elections, the truth is that the theatrics surrounding Duddy’s expulsion seemed exclusively aimed at diluting the impact of the accusations against. Because the sanctions against the trio of Venezuelan high officials originate in the infamous Reyes computer where the three are named in various sections. In fact, I have covered before in these pages how deeply involved Venezuela’s former Minister of the Interior (twice) Ramon Rodriguez Chain has been involved with the FARC. His contacts and connections with the FARC date to the 80’s and there has been ample documentation on it, including him publicly welcoming FARC leaders to Venezuela, getting them Venezuelan papers and his now infamous words of encouragement to the FARC guerrillas as he led the rescue of some hostages, which was covered by a Telesur video camera. We had mentioned before that FARC papers explicitly mentioned Rodriguez Chacin for offering the FARC weapons in exchange for training, as well as a famous note by the FARC, saying that Rodriguez Chacin was truly a “badass”, which must have some meaning coming from such badasses as the FARC. Well, here is the what the Treasury Department had to say about Rodriguez Chacin, who BTW, in his first installment as Minister of the Interior was later found to have two sets of Venezuelan “cedula” umber and under the second one he held an account in a local bank with something like one and a half million dollars at the official rate of exchange: Ramon Emilio Rodriguez Chacin, who was Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice until September 8, is the Venezuelan government's main weapons contact for the FARC. The FARC uses its proceeds from narcotics sales to purchase weapons from the Venezuelan government.  Rodriguez Chacin has held numerous meetings with senior FARC members, one of which occurred at the Venezuelan government's Miraflores Palace in late 2007.  Rodriguez Chacin has also assisted the FARC by trying to facilitate a $250 million dollar loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007.  We cannot confirm whether the loan materialized. And then there is the Head of the Civilian Intelligence Police General Henry Rangel Silva, who has held the position for the last three years and who has appeared prominently in the Maletagate trial as having been in charge of solving the case for Chavez and PDVSA. Rangel has been involved in rescuing Venezuelan cattlemen who later turned out to have been kidnapped by the FARC, He also appeared in some documents where he was supposedly coordinating attacks on Colombian paramilitary with the FARC. Here is the accusation against him by the Treasury Department: Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, the Director of Venezuela's Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services or DISIP, is in charge of intelligence and counterintelligence activities for the Venezuelan government.   Rangel Silva has materially assisted the narcotics trafficking activities of the FARC.  He has also pushed for greater cooperation between the Venezuelan government and the FARC. Note in particular the statement that General Rangel Silva “has materially assisted the trafficking of narcotics by the FARC”. Now, may skeptics may suggest this are trumped up charges, but given the dramatic increase in drug trafficking via Venezuela in the last ten years, it is clear some higher ups have to be helping it. Finally, there are the accusations against the Head of the Military Intelligence Services General Carvajal Barrios, who has been part of that service for the last eight years. He has been in charge of the accusations of assassination attempts and coup plots, producing not a single convicted person in the previous 28 cases investigated and this week is the first time that he has found someone he could detain. (They could still be set free!): Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios is the Director of Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate (DGIM).  His assistance to the FARC includes protecting drug shipments from seizure by Venezuelan anti-narcotics authorities and providing weapons to the FARC, allowing them to maintain their stronghold of the coveted Arauca Department.   Arauca, which is located on the Colombia/Venezuela border, is known for coca cultivation and cocaine production.  Carvajal Barrios also provides the FARC with official Venezuelan government identification documents that allow FARC members to travel to and from Venezuela with ease. Carvajal’s case was documented from Reyes’ computers, which has been certified by Interpol as not having any evidence of tampering, but has also led to arrests of FARC collaborators in Colombia, Thailand and Central America. What is most interesting about these sanctions is that it orders the assets of the three men in the US frozen, something that should really instill fear in those “robolutionaries” who maintain significant assets in the US (It is not that they are dumb, they thought they were untouchable!) and could show up in a list at any time, either via the Miami trial or further evidence from the FARC. You see, the Miami trial involves not only corrupt civilians that paid commissions to Government officials for contracts, bank deposits and influence, but these guys in turn acted as fronts for many of the same officials and “managed” their money for a nice fee of 20% per year. Many of these guys thought they were set for life even if Chavez  1:38:55 AM    comment []