I've been following the Antonini Wilson suitcase going down in Miami the last couple of days, and so far the thing has spattered Los Kirchner with some embarrassing mud. Maybe in another country or a parallel universe or something there would be calls for Kirchner resignations by now....but c'mon....this is Argentina...you hear me? Find a single non-corrupt politico in the power echelons of that country (who isn't an ideology freak or a nutbar) and you're doing better than me.
But today's 'revelation' is more than weird. Bloomie's headline of "Chavez Was Sent Letter Seeking $2 Million for Courier (Update2)" just about sums it up, really. What went down is that Antonini Wilson signed a letter that was written by the US Feds and sent to the H man himself. In it, Antonini asked Chávez for U$2m hush money (details at that Bloomie link...check it out yourself).
Chávez didn't reply to this letter in any way, it seems. Now I'm not an attorney, trial lawyer, Fed head, judge or anything like that, but it does seem like the prosecution is saying to the jury;
"The US gov't wrote a wholly false letter, then along with our informant pretended it came from Antonini and sent it to Hugo Chávez in order to blackmail the head of state of a sovereign nation. It didn't work. However, this makes us look good and honest and trustworthy, and Chávez look all bad and evil and untrustworthy."
Am I missing something here, or are US prosecutors really that stupid?
UPDATE: That bloomie story is now an "Update 3", so it must be important or something...errrr like....dude....
But today's 'revelation' is more than weird. Bloomie's headline of "Chavez Was Sent Letter Seeking $2 Million for Courier (Update2)" just about sums it up, really. What went down is that Antonini Wilson signed a letter that was written by the US Feds and sent to the H man himself. In it, Antonini asked Chávez for U$2m hush money (details at that Bloomie link...check it out yourself).
Chávez didn't reply to this letter in any way, it seems. Now I'm not an attorney, trial lawyer, Fed head, judge or anything like that, but it does seem like the prosecution is saying to the jury;
"The US gov't wrote a wholly false letter, then along with our informant pretended it came from Antonini and sent it to Hugo Chávez in order to blackmail the head of state of a sovereign nation. It didn't work. However, this makes us look good and honest and trustworthy, and Chávez look all bad and evil and untrustworthy."
Am I missing something here, or are US prosecutors really that stupid?
UPDATE: That bloomie story is now an "Update 3", so it must be important or something...errrr like....dude....