BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The twisted mystery of an $800,000 suitcase confiscated in Argentina has kicked up so much dirt that almost everyone who gets near it — even if clean — is accused of being filthy.
Businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, who holds U.S. and Venezuelan passports, was stopped at an airport here in August with a suitcase full of undeclared cash. His visit raised immediate suspicions.
Is Antonini a bagman used by the government of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to deliver illegal political money to the Argentine president, as a federal grand jury in Florida charged recently? Or is the United States using the Florida resident to meddle in the affairs of the region, as many here have argued? If the U.S. case does not definitively prove the link between the Venezuelan government and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s campaign, the United States’ reputation in Latin America could suffer a serious blow.
U.S. prosecutors say they will prove in court that Antonini was carrying an illegal contribution to Fernandez de Kirchner’s campaign from the Venezuelan government and that the two countries tried to pay him $2 million to hush up the deal after the money was found.
Argentine officials have responded in a how-dare-you tone, countering that the dirt in this case comes from a U.S. campaign to discredit them and Chavez. Politicians and others here suggest that Antonini — who is cooperating with the FBI — was operating under U.S. orders.
The idea of a U.S.-backed plot to influence regional politics plays well in a region where some conspiracy theories — such as U.S. support of military dictatorships in the 1970s — have proved true over time.
Antonini, 46, is listed as residing in Key Biscayne, Fla. He arrived at a Buenos Aires airport about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 4 with Venezuelan state energy officials. Their Cessna plane was chartered by Argentina’s state oil company. Chavez was scheduled to arrive two days later to sign a series of energy accords.
“If Venezuela wanted to give money to Cristina’s campaign, why would they do it with this guy?” said Daniel Mojica, 54, manager of an electronics store in Buenos Aires. “Chavez arrived two days later with 24 bags, and with diplomatic immunity. He could have brought $24 million dollars here by himself.”
Antonini was sighted at Argentina’s presidential palace two days later. He left Argentina on Aug. 7 using a U.S. passport and stopped in Uruguay — where Chavez also traveled that day.
Argentine authorities a month later asked the United States to extradite Antonini to face possible currency smuggling violations in Argentina, but the FBI already was secretly using Antonini as an informant, monitoring his telephone calls and his meetings with alleged Venezuelan agents in Florida.
