Antonini Wilson is on Twitter

Hey, who remembers Antonini Wilson, the big guy (quite literally) at the centre of the Suitcase scandal between Venezuela and Argentina way back when Cristina was a newly minted President? Well back than IKN followed the story quite closely (whole range of posts found on this link), but that's not the news today.

The news is that Antonini Wilson has decided to be a twitterer, so follow his fun and frolics (bilingual tweets, so there's something for everyone) right here.

Duran Duran

Far too large to be called Franklin

Hey, remember the Venezuela/Argentina suitcase scandal? Well the guy who pleaded not guilty, insisted on his day in court and allowed us to watch all the fun (the fat guy Antonini Wilson, the customs-officer-turned-nekkid-centrefold Telpuk and all the other 15 minutes of fame crew) got sentenced today.

Franklin Duran was facing up to 15 years on the rap but the judge gave him four years instead. So with his stay in jail counting as from his arrest (December 2007) and time off for good behaviour and Otto's finger in the air guesstimate, he should be out by...hmmmm.... next week, perhaps? Early June?

From there he'll be deported back to Land-Of-Chávez, say "hey! why did you confiscate my gas stations you swines?" and finish with a cushy job in the public sector somewhere.

Probably.

The Antonini Wilson Suitcase trial thingy

It took 'em a full week, but we have a verdict from Miami. For those wanting my take (I've had mails, y'see) on the just-hit guilty verdict passed on Franklin Duran click to this post from last week. I haven't changed my mind since then. If you want the snark, reaction, comment and background go visit borev; he's much better at this stuff than I am and he's actually been following this circus (some kind of masochistic streak, probably).

Meanwhile, this link takes you to the nekkid photos of the Customs officer. FWIW, this post has been 20 times more popular than any other written on the subject. C'mon...admit it dudes. You really don't care about the trial as long as the skinshots are available.

The Antonini Wilson Suitcase trial thingy in Miami gets its verdict today

Another Telpuk photo rescues another boring post: amazing what
they can do with photoshop these days, isn't it?

Borev ran this note on the "valijagate" trial in Miami over the weekend and a reader passed the link on to me and said, "So? Waddya think, Otto? Exciting stuff no? Coming to a climax, no?".

No.

I've tried, I've really tried to get all hot'n'bothered about the suitcase trial thingy but it's just not working. Even the nekkid photos of the Telpuk girl were disappointing in that plasticky way, but the main problem I have with all this is that on the one hand you have a prosecution revealing shock truths about corruption in South America (which shocks nobody who lives down here) and on the other you have a shocked defence accusing the USA of meddling in South American affairs and generally stirring up shit for its own good (which also shocks nobody down here).

It's a zero-sum game, y'see. Add that to the fact that I don't like soap-operas, and half the cast of this one are straight out of the worst Mexican telenovela possible. You have the fat dickhead millionaire, the wannabe playboy model who has opportunity knock on her door, high level gov't shenanigans, thrusting truth-seekers with their own ambitions, guilty-person-declared-innocent / innocent-person-declared-guilty (whichever way it goes for Franklin Duran today), then the fast cars, fast women, intrigue, private jets etc etc etc ad infinitum. It's very fitting that the whole thing is going down in Miami, all things told.

So the verdict is supposed to hit the wires this afternoon and Franklin Duran gets anything from set free to 15 years in the can. Whatever way it goes, a squillion words will get written on the affair on both sides of the fight. But count me out as from the end of this post. Sorry, not interested, go get your fix somewhere else.


UPDATE: Against my better judgement, a quick update. The jury hasn't been able to reach a unanimous verdict today and so the deliberations will continue tomorrow.

Stop Press! Fair and evenhand reporting on the Antonini Wilson suitcase trial thingy...in MSM...in English

"Wilson! Wilsoooooon!"

Err...hate to say it, blogpeople, but full kudos to Benedict Mander for today's report in the London FT about the suitcase trial. However, poor Mander will now be accused of blatant communism because he dared put forward both sides of the argument about what's going on at the Miami trial.

Note to all other media services in LatAm: Look how easy it is to actually do a bit of fair reporting on Venezuela issues. 1) Write 517 words, 2) submit copy, 3) take the rest of the day and hit the bars for happy-hour G&Ts. What -ho!

But seriously, this is good work from Mander. I don't want political agendas stuffed down my throat, I want the kind of thing written below the line here (i.e. facts, and both sides of the story). Kudos to you, Blighty.

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Court case throws up tales of intrigue

By Benedict Mander in Caracas

Published: September 26 2008 18:46 | Last updated: September 26 2008 18:46

While President Hugo Chávez was touring Cuba, China and Russia this week with great fanfare, a court in Miami was hearing about what the prosecution claims was a more covert Venezuelan diplomatic mission that spectacularly backfired.

Witnesses have been providing evidence to support a tale of intrigue that they say involves secret agents, hush money, coercion and even death threats, that has fuelled speculation of corruption at the highest levels of the Venezuelan government.

It all began a year ago when Guido Antonini, a Venezuelan-US businessman, was caught entering Argentina with a suitcase bulging with almost $800,000 (€547,000, £435,000). Mr Antonini subsequently fled to Miami claiming that the money was a gift from Mr Chávez to help President Cristina Fernández’s election campaign, and this week alleged that the Venezuelan officials he travelled with were carrying other suitcases with a further $4.2m.

Both Mr Chávez – who is directly implicated in the case – and Ms Fernández, have denounced the trial as “garbage”, and a transparent attempt by the US at slurring the reputations of leftwing governments emerging in Latin America.

It has further undermined already shaky relations between Venezuela and the US to deteriorate yet further, which plumbed new depths earlier this month when Mr Chávez banished the US ambassador in Caracas. The US was also accused of having links to an alleged coup attempt that was uncovered the very same week.

After starting to collaborate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Miami, Mr Antonini was visited by men – allegedly on behalf of the Venezuelan government – who were attempting to keep him quiet, for which Mr Antonini demanded $2m in an FBI-penned letter addressed directly to Mr Chávez. But their conversations were secretly recorded with wiretaps, leading to the arrest of the men visiting Mr Antonini, for acting as unauthorised agents of a foreign government. All but one, Franklin Duran, pleaded guilty; he is the man now on trial in Miami.

Many analysts agree that the case, and the furore surrounding it, is highly politicised. “This case smells to high heaven,” says Nikolas Kozloff, the author of a new book on leftwing movements in Latin America. He points out that the key witness, Mr Antonini, who has been linked to radical sectors of the Venezuelan opposition that tried to overthrow Mr Chávez in a 2002 coup with tacit US support, “raises eyebrows”.

“The Chávez government has an axe to grind and we should be circumspect about its claims that the US has somehow tried to set up Venezuela,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said Washington might also have ulterior, geopolitical motives: by attempting to embarrass Mr Chávez it could be aiming to limit his influence in the region.

For example, in one of the taped conversations with Mr Antonini, it is claimed that Mr Chávez – who has also been accused of using his plentiful petrodollars to fund political allies in countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Mexico, as well as Colombian Marxist guerrillas – may also have paid governments in return for their support in his failed attempt to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2006.

The suitcase trial Antonini thing is beginning to get on my nerves....

...but there's just space for one snarkshot before I leave it alone. As part of his official declarations, obvious liar Antonini Wilson said that it famous $800k briefcase/suitcase/whateveritwascase wasn't his, had had nothing to do with it and he was just helping out etc etc. His exact words were: "All I did was to help carry the bags to the cars in a gentlemanly gesture to the assistant Victoria B.".

Well apart from the minor detail that before the briefcase was opened before his eyes by customs he first lied twice about its contents and then finally said it contained money, let's check out this photo of Antonini and his lawyer taken outside the courtroom on Wednesday.

As we can see, Antonini Wilson manages to make the gentlemanly gesture of carrying a cellular phone while his lawyer struggles with not one but two bags.

Otto sez: Actions speak louder than words, gentlemanly is as gentlemanly does, and this dude is a serious piece of shit.

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.

Is it just me, or is there something wildly Kafka about Antonini Wilson and the USA prosecution people?

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....

The suitcase trial, and Antonini's (first) day in court

That was then (triple chin, medallion, Just For Men coiff, total wide-boy look)

But this is now (1 1/2 chins, sober suit, starched collar, mature'n'respectable)

You've come a long way, baby....

In Miami the star snitch/witness Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson took the stand today, and as suspected didnt say much to incriminate the officially accused, Franklin Duran. On the other hand he dropped a couple of right-on-schedule bombshells in the lap of Los Kirchners. A lot of waffle was waffled, but the two things you need to know are:

1) A couple of days after getting the $800k suitcase snatched off him by this person, Antonini met with the bossman of PdVSA Argentina, who asked him where the rest of the money was. Antonini came on all innocent like (according to his testimony today, anyway) and said "what money?". Señor PdVSA replies, "The other $4.2m that came in the other suitcase."

2) Antonini Wilson today testified that he was at a reception in Argentina's "Casa Rosada" ("The Pink House", and official city centre presidential palace) at the same time as the H man. This directly contradicts the Argentine Minister of Justice, Anibal Fernández, who said last week, "Let's finish once and for all with this story that he (Antonini) was in the Casa Rosada.."

He also made it clear that the $800k suitcase wasn't his, and it was Claudio Uberti's. To remind you, Uberti is/was the Kirchner's right hand man and at that time was in charge of the public office that controls Argentina's toll booths....I mean, no ready cash in that department, is there?

Expect fireworks.

Psst! Wanna see the tapescript they're going to use in the Antonini suitcase trial tomorrow?

If you do, then click right here. It's a PDF in Spanish and English, it was recorded on November 30th last year in a restaurant and it's a conversation between Guido Antonini (supergrass) and Moises Maionica (one of the "foreign agents").

Be warned: it's 155 pages long. Have fun!

The suitcase trial starts to get interesting

So far I've deliberately not mentioned anything about the trial going on in Miami because up to now it's been pure yada yada "we're gonna prove this" on one side and "my client is totally innocent" on the other. But today we heard the first recording made of conversations between the suitcase carrier turned supergrass, Guido Antonini Wilson, and the accused, Franklin Durán.

Things are now getting juicy, but one thing to keep in mind is that by this time, Antonini was working for the Feds and secretly taping the conversations. He was also trying to get as much information as possible for the US Feds, and a defence of entrapment is likely to be used by Durán.

As well as Antonini and Durán, in the recording a guy called Guillermo Ledesma, an Argentine lawyer, is also heard speaking. Critically they talk about a certain Claudio Uberti, who was one of Nestor Kirchner's inner circle of functionaries and the man who travelled with Antonini on the plane.

Here we go with the tapescript as heard by the court; My only comment so far is that this whole charade is likely to embarrass the Kirchner end of South America more than the Chávez end.

Translation Otto.

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Franklin Durán : (in reference to a Venezuela-Argentina agreement to close the case) "There are elections on the 28th October, and there's risk if Cristina doesn't win, we have to assume that risk".
(Speaking to Antonini); If Cristina doesn't win the election, thet will give it to you hard, with a bat. If the opposition win you'll be the scapegoat."

Guido Antonini : "If I talk everybody will go to prison."

Franklin Durán: "The real truth is that they are argentines and they will defend their own territory, and the only one that will go to prison is you."

Guillermo Ledesma : "You have to hand yourself in. That way you'll give a signal to the Argentine government that you won't sell out."

Guido Antonini : "Who will guarantee this?" (meaning that he won't go to jail)

Guillermo Ledesma : "Kirchner and Chávez".

Guido Antonini : "Today, the only weapon I have is the truth. They tell me that this is a political disaster."
(Referring to Claudio Uberti) "He asked me to carry the briefcase. Well, i did him the favour of carrying the briefcase. That was all, as easy as that."
"I need the goverment (of Venezuela) to give me a guarantee, to give me something for the benefit of my family."

Franklin Durán : "What guarantee do you want? You finished with half the money, $400,000."

Guido Antonini : "No, I want more".

Franklin Durán : "How much do you need them to transfer you? Tell me to which account?".

Guido Antonini : "Who's going to give you it?"

Franklin Durán : "It doesn't matter to you".

Guido Antonini : "I'm going to ask you for a million dollars. And I'm not going to prison?".

Franklin Durán: "You're not going to prison, I'm guaranteeing you that."

Guido Antonini : Why did Rafael Ramírez (Venezuela Energy minister) wash his hands of all this?

Franklin Durán : "Rafael Ramírez is not washing his hands of this, he can't wash his hands of this any more. President Chávez already knows the Rafael Ramírez's assistant was the person who carried the briefcase on to the plane."

suitcases and nekkidness

I've been tossing about the idea (chortle chortle) of running a post on Maria Telpuk for quite a while. She was the Argentine police customs officer who stopped Guido Antonini Wilson from waltzing into Buenos Aires with the now world-famous suitcase carrying nearly U$800,000.

Since that moment, she's....well....she's kinda made a couple of distinct career moves, and that's what the post would have been all about.

Fortunately, the magnificent borev has taken the job off my hands (so to speak) with this post on the whole saga, pictures and all. Do not click that link if under 18. Have fun!

The stuffed suitcase gets its day in court

Tomorrow at 10:30am local time the court case starts that arose from near U$800,000 carried into Argentina by Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson. Dubbed "Valijagate" (suitcasegate) by a sadly cliché-ridden local press, the USA will try to prove that a guy named Franklin Duran was acting as a foreign agent or something. Apparently he went to see Antonini Wilson in Miami and told him to keep schtum about the money and where it came from and where it was going. Three others have already copped a guilty plea to keep their noses out of the scene, but Duran is determined to have his day in court.

Although the actual accusations of the case are one thing, the real interest is bound to be generated when people piece to together the (so far hinted) accusations that the $800k was smuggled into Argentina on Chávez's orders to help the Kirchners with Klishtina's election campaign. Klishtina emphatically denied this at the time, so it looks like something's got to give. Why this is coming up in a US court of law is a little beyond me, but hey!....way of the world, no? By the way, we'll have plenty of time to chew over the case, as it's due to last a month. Plenty of time for thoe who wish to froth at the mouth about Chávez&Co to do so.

To wrap this up I'll leave you with a little gallery of images that include Antonini Wilson (the fat dude), the actual physical U$800,000 in question on the day it was confiscated by Argentine customs, and Wilson posing with the accused Duran and what could be two kind ladies that keep houses clean in well-to-do Miami (though I'm not sure).

Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson

Antonini Wilson shows his tea drinking pinkie works just fine

Ever wondered what nearly $800k looks like?

Franklin Duran with Guido and friends