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Jaime Bayly and Twobreakfasts

Noted South American novelist, talk show host and (for a while this year) candidate for President of Peru Jaime Bayly is intelligent, engaging and writes up a storm. He's also a total son of a bitch. This is a good combination for a snark-merchant site like IKN and here he is spilling the beans today on a private dinner he had this year with President Twobreakfasts. The basic takeaway is that Bayly may well be a SOB, but García beats him hands down in the corruption and anti-democracy stakes. Translated excerpt from Bayly's column linked here or here:

"Finally, I invited President Alan García to dinner at my house, the genetic accident who governs Peru. When García sank his oceanic girth into the sofa, I had an ominous thought and feared that the piece of furniture would break into pieces. Alan encouraged me to be a candidate (in the Presidential elections). I told him I didn't have enough money and my mother wouldn't back me. I asked him how much the President of Peru earned. He didn't seem to know nor care. "Something like U$3000 a month", he said. I told him that with that salary I couldn't maintain my family for five years and added that I'm not a thief and didn't have the urge to learn the trade. Alan let out a laugh and came out with the phrase of the evening, "Don't be an idiot man, money arrives all by itself."

"Later, García said something that to me seemed awful, that if Mr. Humala won the election he would lead a Coup D'Etat and stop, by breaking the law, that Ollanta Humala became President. "Even if they throw me in jail, Humala will not be President", boasted García.


"That night left me thinking that in fact this is how politics is in Peru: The absolute lack of scruples, passing the hat around and hoping that money arrives by itself, a subtle and false way of saying that money arrives from under the table, in suitcases, bribes and secret bank accounts."

The Miami suitcase trial, and will the real Antonini Wilson please stand up?

So let's just re-cap on Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson a moment, shall we? According to the image, information, spin, image-grooming and all other things suchlike, we're basically being fed the following story:

1) Antonini is a Chávez bagman caught carrying PdVSA slush fund money into Argentina

2) The money was being given to the Kirchners to finance their election campaign

3) The money came on Chávez's orders and travelled with a whole posse of pro-Chávez & Kirchner people.

4) After he was caught, this guy who was tight with the Chávez gov't and money mob turns against his boss for the sake of his family, became an informer for the US Feds and betrays former close friends, PdVSA officials and the Venezuelan government in return for immunity and protection in the USA.

Does that sound about right? Well, what if I were to tell you that

• Antonini is not some sort of hired bagman for the Chávez government, but in fact a multimillionaire hotel owner in Miami with a stable of very expensive cars to his name.
  

• Antonini is close friends with Carlos Andres Perez (aka CAP) the ex-Venezuelan president who hates Chávez and famously said he wants him to 'die like a dog'.

• Antonini hates Chávez as well, calls him "a disgrace" and predicted the coup d'etat in 2002 by saying just weeks before it took place that "Chávez won't last. He's going to fall soon. We're going to bring him down."

• And when he said 'We', he obviously meant it. This because when the other person put forward counter-arguments about Venezuelan army loyalty etc, Antonini Wilson said "Remember what I say. We're taking Chávez down. He's going to finish in jail."

The explosive story about the time the acclaimed and respected Peruvian author Jaime Bayly met Guido Antonini Wilson was published by the author in January this year. Bina at News of the Restless has done an excellent job of translating it into English and the link is right here. Kudos, Bina.

If you only link through from this site to one LatAm political story this year, make it this one. This is required reading for anyone remotely interested in the case, and is ample evidence to show that the whole Miami trial is some sort of circus cooked up by those wishing to discredit the governments of Argentina and Venezuela. Here's the link again, just in case. Now go read it. Unmissable. Once you do you'll know that you're being lied to.