Court Case in Miami Casts Light on Corruption in Venezuela

[robcon]

Source: Washington Post

...Kickbacks, bribes and secret payoffs have become a feature in the socialist administration, which had claimed a break from the past but instead has seen several officials implicated in multimillion-dollar corruption schemes, according to testimony and conversations taped by the FBI. The trial has also revealed the Chávez government's determination to funnel state funds to its allies in Latin America and the lengths it will go to to keep the aid secret.

The eight-week trial centers on whether the Venezuelan government dispatched five men to Miami to coerce and cajole a Venezuelan American man into keeping quiet about $800,000 in Venezuelan state funds that Chávez's associates allegedly tried to channel to political allies in Argentina.

In August 2007, customs agents in Argentina detained the man, Guido Alejandro Antonini, after he arrived at the Buenos Aires airport with the cash. Antonini, who had been close to the Chávez government, was soon released and went home to Miami. But as rumors swirled that the money had been designated for the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the Venezuelan government sent operatives to Miami to urge Antonini never to reveal the truth, U.S. prosecutors said.

The Venezuelan operatives met with Antonini in cafes and restaurants to urge him to stay quiet, expressing concern that Fernández de Kirchner would lose the presidency if it became known that the money had been destined for her campaign.

"The truth can cost her the election," one of the operatives, Moisés Maiónica, told Antonini. Fernández de Kirchner, a close ally of Chávez's, won the presidency in October 2007. Maiónica and other Venezuelans did not know, however, that Antonini was cooperating with the FBI and had secretly taped their meetings and phone conversations.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102303364.html

---

Chavez? Interfering with an election in another country???? Tell me something I didn't know!

[mntleo2]

1. I don't get it ...

...now WHY are we putting a man on trial who is involved with kickbacks to the Argentina government??? It doesn't appear to be our business. I am not defending Chavez whose only virtue is that he was elected by We The People instead of the corrupt 2 party ensconced system with a 60% disenfranchised voting public until that 60% showed up and voted. We have a history of trying to micromanage South American politics that has a very disgusting history. From the Pinochet debacle that "disappeared" hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens Henry Kissinger supported to entire villages in Guatemala being wiped out and Archbishop Romero being assassinated by American funded wingnuts under Reagan, the U.S. keeps putting in their nose where it does not belong. Our CIA and our unions tried to depose Chavez and that same 60% who voted rose up and refused to allow him to be deposed. This does not say anything about Chavez' character,who is a kook in many ways, but he WAS democratically elected by a majority of his people and it is up to his country to prosecute anyone. I still do not understand why WE are putting a man on trial who had bribe money supposedly from Chavez to Argentina, what does that have to do with US?

Just asking ....

Cat In Seattle

[zeemike]

11. Well I get it.

What do you do when you have an enemy that you have no jurisdiction over?
Persecute or prosecute every little rumor (that you start yourself) and bio;d a case against him.
And when you have laid the ground work and convince others he is a monster then send in the Marines to bring freedom to those poor people.
It is the American Way._

[hack89]

12. Antonini is not the defendant

From the link:

Maiónica and other Venezuelans did not know, however, that Antonini was cooperating with the FBI and had secretly taped their meetings and phone conversations.

Maiónica, along with another Venezuelan, Carlos Kauffmann, and an Uruguayan national, has pleaded guilty to the unusual charge of operating in the United States as unregistered agents of the Venezuelan state. U.S. prosecutors are searching for Antonio José Canchica, a high-level operative in Venezuela's intelligence service who was indicted in the case.

The defendant in the trial, Franklin Durán, 41, a business associate of Antonini's, was among those allegedly sent to launch the coverup. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

"The Venezuelan government had a problem, directed Franklin Durán to assist, and he did so," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley told jurors during closing arguments Thursday.

[robbibaba]

2. Why Can't They Be More Like US?

A little secret rendition here, or simply bomb the other country to smithereens and install their own puppet? These socialist countries are weak.

[mackerel]

4. Chavez is not all he's cracked up to be and

Christina Fernandez de Kirchner is more of a puppet President. She doesn't get that involved with the day to day operations but you can find her at the disco in the evenings. She shows up at around midnight which makes it hard for her to make the morning cabinet meetings.

My guess is Chavez has a lot of influence in Argentina politics.

[bitchkitty]

14. I've just spent the last half hour

searching for any reference at all to Fernandez de Kirchner's disco habits. I find no mention of her appearing at midnight anywhere, much less a disco. Or of being late for meetings. Where are you getting your information?

[Judi Lynn]

15. Isn't that sad? First I've heard of it, too. Damned pathetic effort to smear President Fernandez.

Do you imagine her security people have to dance, too?



That would be so unfair to the taxpayers, wouldn't it, having to support a hardy partier?





I'm not sure which one is Christina.

[bitchkitty]

19. LMAO! No doubt!

Seriously, the only negative thing I found about her in the shallow vein was a blog entry that said she was criticized for paying too much attention to her appearance. So now I guess being well groomed is a socialist trait.

It never ends. If this admittedly stunning woman were more of a plain Jane, they'd be making fun of her for that.

[bertman]

3. I smell CIA. Somebody must have some on the bottom of their shoe.

[Proletariatprincess]

5. Don't trust the FBI...

or the Washington Post. I will look for another source on this story, but it sounds fishy to me. Anything they can make up or get on Chavez is fair game for the clowns in Washington. Even if there is substance to this story, I dont trust the US corporate media to report it objectively.

[L. Coyote]

6. PROPAGANDA ALERT! "the socialist administration" is revealing

of their bias. Venezuela has a democratic government, and an elected executive. The administration is "democratic" and not socialist.

Meanwhile "as rumors swirled ...." LOL! Rumors are not news, but they are good propaganda devices.

[bean fidhleir]

22. "democratic" and "socialist" are NOT contradictory

"Democratic" refers to who can vote. "Socialist" refers to economics: who owns whose jobs and whether the wealth of the country is concentrated or spread around.

[wvbygod]

7. Say it ain't so Hugo! C'mon, we're rooting for ya!

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Hugo's altruistic benevolence has, like so many other
tinpots, been jaded by their greed and hunger for power.

[Nambe]

8. Cheney get $1million over the table. These guys are pick pockets.

The US funnels millions to right wing candidates in Latin America. Remember the Contra $$$ and death squads. I hope the fairly elected governments of the people are giving equal $$$ to hard working candidates opposing the corporate thieves in Washington.

The bush foreign agents are illegally taping phone calls and using them as evidence. Let´s have the FBI tape Cheney´s phone and see where it leads. Mass murders should not have control of an oil fed FBI.

[MetaTrope]

17. $1 million? The White House got $100 BILLION of the bailout funds

I'm still waiting to see some accounting for Bush's "discretionary spending".

[Billy Burnett]

9. Want fair trial on any case brought against Ven or Cuba? Miami is the venue, of course.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Thanks for the vivid reminder. Just one glance brings it all crashing back!

I remember reading a message board with these reactionary lunatics posting on it, threatening the posters who advocated sending the child back home to live with his father, step-mother, little brother, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, schoolmates, neighbors.

They couldn't be satisfied having to settle for villifying other (normal!) posters as "useful idiots," "commies," Castro-lovers, pinkos. Some of the posters said they were suddenly being visited by attempted hacks on their computers! I was so afraid of these loons, especially after learning their 40+ year old history of violence against Cuba, and even Cuba-supporting people in the Unites States, and around the world, that I put off trying to post for MONTHS before getting up the nerve to join the conversation.

I can't even imagine what it's like living in Miami, knowing the reactionary right-wing hate radio stations even give out names, and phone numbers, and ADDRESSES of political enemies, setting them up as targets of future acts of violence. They also load up buses and transport groups of muscle to intimidate various politically unwanted functions, like the time St. Petersburg decided in city hall meetings to become a sister city to Baracoa, Cuba, and they hauled a bus over full of raging right-wingers to intimidate the members of the community attending meetings, serving on the council.

I've read repeatedly it's almost impossible to get a conviction on certain criminals in town when one of their faction controls the prosecutor's office, and that's about par. Who can forget the recent Elián-like case with another Cuban child the Miami exiles decided they'd just keep this time, regardless of BOTH her parents' entreaties?

Good grief.

All from the _{Jeb/George W./ George H. W. Bush} Miami base, bless their little violent hearts.

Great photos! Wow.

[primavera]

10. So hard to know

Chavez hasn't always shown great tactical judgment, so this isn't altogether implausible, yet our corporate media has made such a crusade out of vilifying Chavez, it's hard to accept anything they report about him as being even remotely objective. And, of course, what do they mean by "corruption"? That Chavez is funneling money to an ally in Argentina? Like we don't do exactly the same thing? So what makes his conduct "corruption" and ours merely "foreign policy"?

[Judi Lynn]

13. Who doesn't remember another recent Bush administration case against Bush "enemies, the "Miami 7?"

Liberty City Seven Trial Travesty
The case against Miami “terrorists” is mired in greed and falsehoods.
By Bob Norman
Published on November 21, 2007 at 12:53pm

One extorted $7,000 from a friend who raped his girlfriend and then, after accepting the money, beat her up and went to jail.

The other failed an FBI polygraph test while working on an undercover investigation, which one former FBI agent says should have disqualified him from ever working for the government again. Oh, and he was also once charged with roughing up a woman.

And these are supposed to be the good guys.

All of America has heard about the bizarre Liberty City Seven terrorism trial now winding down at the federal courthouse in Miami. It began with the arrest of seven members of an obscure religious sect in June last year. At a nationally televised news conference, then-U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzalez told the country that the dirt-poor black defendants were prepared to "wage a full ground war on the United States."

It made for a sensational sound bite — and a temporary diversion for the administration, a moment of seeming victory in the war on terror, a fleeting quiet place in the growing public clamor about illegal wiretaps and the growing disaster in Iraq. But FBI brass was a bit more realistic. They cautioned that the ineffectual group was "more aspirational than operational." Today that even seems a bit overstated. Forget about America; this was a ragtag group that couldn't wage a ground war on a jar of peppercorns.

The question at the heart of the farce: Was the group's leader, Narseal "Brother Naz" Batiste, really bent on destroying the Sears Tower in Chicago, or was he simply trying to beat a couple of government informants posing as al Qaeda operatives out of $50,000?

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-11-22/news/liberty-city-seven-trial-travesty/

The first trial didn't get the _Bush administration what it wanted, it tried them again. The next one ended, I think, in a mistrial, or hung jury, or whatever, with the _Bush administration leaving it hanging in the air that they would be finding a way to try it again. A-holes.

[Vogon_Glory]

18. Amazing About The Lengths The Whitewashers Will Go To

It's amazing about the lengths the whitewashers will go to in regard to covering up the Chavez regime's shortcomings. Not that I'm defending the old Venezuelan elite or downplaying the very real efforts that the Chavez regime has made to uplift the poorer portions of Venezuelan society, but it has to be said that by whatever electoral margins Chavez and co. win elections, he is not really a democrat, but a strongman more along the lines of a Peron or a Cardenas than someone who genuinely believes in liberty.

I think it needs to be said and repeated again and again, since so many people want to ignore it, but liberty is an indispensable part of a genuine representative democracy, and that there's been less and less of it in Venezuela as Hugo Chavez tightens his grip on power.

Latin America has been screwed many times over--by indigenous imperialists (Like the Aztecs and the Incas), by the Spanish conquistadors, by the old colonial and post-colonial elites, by American neo-colonialists, and by the crooks and opportunists of the 20th century. They deserve a decent break.

[bitchkitty]

20. Please list the ways in which Hugo Chavez is

like Juan Peron. I mean other than the fact that they are Latin American leaders.

[Judi Lynn]

21. They need a break? That's why they have voted for their President and new legislators

in elections which have been monitored by hordes of election observers from all over the world, time and time again.

They need strong officials to pull Venezuela back from the iron fisted grasp of US based multinationals who have been bleeding the country forever, handed outrageously generous arrangements which gave them token tax responsibility, and allowed the wealth to flow from Venezuela as though from a fatal wound, while the vast masses of the poor suffered without EVERYTHING.

Don't even bother attempting to claim ANY Latin American country is wrong to reverse the effect of filthy control from outside the country being shared with the tiny oligarchy in each country. That's all going to change, it's changing NOW, and no matter how hard U.S. fascists try to prevent it, it's NOT going to revert to the evil, feudal state it was before.

Venezuelans, as illustrated in 1958, during a "visit" by U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, want US exploitive interests OUT of Venezuela. That's GOING TO HAPPEN.

[bean fidhleir]

23. What do YOU mean when you say "liberty"? What does that word mean to you?

It sounds like you might be equating it with capitalism.