But wasn't this fat man conspiring against Chavez?

I would have thought that the CIA was brighter than this ...

VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: This is utterly ridiculous.  I would have thought that the CIA was brighter than this ... but they certainly aren't very bright at all.  People may have heard the story about a Miami-based Venezuelan businessman named Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson who was caught at the Buenos Aires (Argentina) airport in August 2007 with $800,000 in a suitcase which he said was his. Then, around the time of Venezuela's December 2007 national referendum to either approve or reject Chavez' and the the National Assembly's proposed changes to the Venezuelan constitution, the US-based mass media began to say that the $800,000 was sent through Wilson by the Chavez government with the aim of subversively financing the Argentinean (pro-Chavez) presidential candidate, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner... all this hoopla to make Chavez look bad, again, as usual.

According to a January 25, 2008, Bloomberg article, "A man pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's intelligence agency in covering up a plot to influence Argentina's presidential election. Moises Maionica, 36, admitted in federal court in Miami that he conspired with four men to silence Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a Florida businessman. On Aug. 4, Antonini claimed he owned a suitcase with $800,000 that was seized at a Buenos Aires airport. Maionica admitted pressuring Antonini to tell no one the cash came from the Venezuelan government and was intended for the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner ... On Aug. 4, Antonini flew from Caracas to Argentina on a private jet with officials of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, that nation's energy company, according to the document. Authorities have previously said that Energia Argentina SA, or Enarsa, Argentina's state energy company, chartered the Cessna Citation jet. The document claims for the first time that Antonini had no knowledge of the suitcase's contents. 'Mr. Antonini was carrying the suitcase at the request of one of the other passengers,' according to the document. 'Mr. Antonini was unaware that the $800,000 was in the suitcase, as the suitcase belonged to one of the other passengers.' "

Do you see what I see?  I remember this incident, Wilson was caught in Argentina with the $800,000 suitcase and said it was his ... but then, about 6 months later, after the US government gets involved, the story does a 180 and Wilson was not the owner of the suitcase ... and the money wasn't his ... and the money was sent through him, without his knowing, by the Venezuelan government .... and the money was destined to go to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a pro-Chavez candidate for Argentina's presidential election. Weird.

But here is a quote from a January 7, 2008, Bloomberg article, "Two men accused of acting as illegal agents of Venezuela pleaded innocent in a case that U.S. prosecutors claimed involves covering up the attempted delivery of $800,000 in a suitcase to an Argentine presidential campaign. Carlos Kauffmann and Moises Maionica, both 36, entered not guilty pleas today in Miami federal court. Florida businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson said he carried the cash from Venezuela to Buenos Aires, where airport authorities discovered it Aug. 4. Prosecutors contend Venezuela intended it for Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's campaign." (It is worth reading this entire article because it simply makes no sense ... and it shows just how ridiculous the whole thing is ... and it certainly allows one to get a whiff of the stench of subversive CIA activity in the matter.)

Again, Wilson says that he carried the cash ... and ... the cash is said to have been sent by the Venezuelan government to covertly finance Kirchner in Argentina.

Then a January 8, 2008 Bloomberg article states, "Maria Lujan Telpuk, a Buenos Aires airport police officer, was X-raying luggage at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 4 when she spotted the suitcase. Her machine showed it was 'packed with perfect rectangles of very high density.' When Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a Florida businessman arriving from Caracas, opened the bag at her insistence, it revealed bundles of U.S. cash. `He said, "There might be about $60,000,'' ' Telpuk, 27, recalled in an interview. 'I freaked out.' He was lying or mistaken. Authorities who seized the valise counted $790,550 ... Telpuk recounted this exchange in the interview: 'This is my suitcase,' he said. 'Sir, what did you bring in your suitcase?' she asked. 'Some books.' 'What else do you have in there?'  'I also have some papers.' 'Open the suitcase.' He hesitated. She insisted: 'Open it.' As he unzipped it, she saw cash wrapped in rubber bands. 'He wasn't aggressive,' Telpuk said. 'He was a real gentleman.' " (This is another article worth reading.)

The above again clearly implicates Wilson directly, meaning, that he was fully aware of what was in the suitcase. The whole story is bizarre and full of contradictions. If one reads the above quoted articles in their entirety, one discovers that the US government has arrested some Venezuelan businessmen living in the USA and charged them with spying (unregistered agents for a foreign country) and if one reads other articles related to this whole affair, the US government has also seized their bank accounts. The whole story is incomprehensible ... except for one thing which is emphasized over and over (without a shred of verifiable evidence), that the Chavez government was involved in some unspecified act of subversion. Weird.

To me, it all sounds like a CIA set-up for the media clowns who continue to bash Chavez and his government.  I saw Chavez talking about this incident ... and he said that it was said that Wilson had met with Chavez.  Chavez was completely taken aback and said that he had never heard of or met this Wilson character. (Why would anyone say that Wilson met with Chavez?)  I believe Chavez ... and I certainly don't believe Wilson. You'll see why later in the article.

Now, here is perhaps the most interesting part of the story.

I received two emails yesterday, both referring to January 28 and January 29, 2008 articles on Aporrea.org,  a very well-known Venezuelan Spanish-language pro-Chavez website.  One article refers to some highly interesting and incriminating things said about Wilson by one Jaime Bayly, a well-known Peruvian journalist and television personality in Peru and abroad, including Miami at some point. One has to keep in mind that Bayly is completely anti-Chavez ... so what Bayly says about Wilson is of huge importance ... and probably true. The other article is about Luis Bilbao, an Argentinean journalist, who like me believes that the whole thing is a CIA set-up. The following is an excerpt (in Spanish) of what Bayly said in one of his articles in the Peruvian newspaper El Correo Del Peru  on January 28, 2008, about a meeting he had in January 2002 with Wilson at Wilson's home in Miami (translation further below):

"Me dijo que Chávez era una desgracia, que había instaurado un régimen autoritario y corrupto, que los amigotes de Chávez estaban haciéndose muy ricos, que no se podía hacer dinero a no ser que fueras socio del régimen. Me contó que era amigo de Carlos Andrés Pérez, que hablaban a menudo, que Carlos Andrés estaba en Santo Domingo, pero venía con frecuencia a Miami. Le dije que conocía a Carlos Andrés, que lo había entrevistado el año 97 o 98. Cogió el teléfono, llamó a Carlos Andrés y le dijo que estaba conmigo. Me dio sus saludos. Le dijo que cuando viniera a Miami, teníamos que juntarnos los tres "para hablar de política". Hablaron de cosas que no entendí y cortó. Mi amigo Guido se sirvió otro trago y me dijo: -Chávez no va a durar. Va a caer pronto. Lo vamos a tumbar. Le dije que eso sería difícil, dado que los militares lo apoyaban y muchos de sus compañeros de promoción ocupaban puestos claves. -Acuérdate de mí -insistió-. A Chávez lo tumbamos. Va a terminar en la cárcel. Pensé que estaba fanfarroneando, que quería hacer alarde de su poder y sus conexiones. Poco después me llevó a la cochera del edificio y me mostró su colección de autos de lujo: Hummers, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mercedes. -Cuando quieras, te presto uno de estos para que lleves a tus hijas a Orlando -me sorprendió ... Unos meses después, en abril, leí que le habían dado un golpe a Chávez. Me acordé de mi amigo Guido, de sus enfáticas palabras: -Chávez no va a durar. Lo vamos a tumbar. Lo llamé para preguntarle qué estaba pasando en Caracas. No contestó ... No volví a verlo más, hasta una mañana, cinco años después, en que abrí un periódico en Buenos Aires y vi la foto de ese raro gordo bonachón, acusado de ser "el hombre de la valija", el misterioso pasajero que llegó en un vuelo privado desde Caracas y quiso introducir ilegalmente un maletín con ochocientos mil dólares en efectivo. Lo primero que pensé fue: Suerte que no me prestó su Hummer para ir a Disney. Lo siguiente que me dije fue: ¿Pero este gordo no estaba conspirando contra Chávez?"

"He (Wilson) told me that Chavez is a disgrace, that he had set up a corrupt and authoritarian government, that Chavez' friends were getting very rich and that one can't make money in Venezuela unless one is partner with the regime. He told me that he is friends with Carlos Andres Perez (CAP -- one of Venezuela's most corrupt presidents ever), that they talk often and that CAP was in Santo Domingo but came to Miami often. I told him I knew CAP because I had interviewed him in 97 or 98.  He took the phone, called CAP and told CAP that he was with me and CAP said hello and he told CAP that when CAP comes to Miami, we have so sit down all three of us to 'discuss politics.'  Then they talked about stuff I didn't understand and he hung up. My friend Guido served himself another drink and said, 'Chavez won't last long.  He will fall. We will bring him down.'  I told him that that would be difficult because the military is on his side and many of his (military) schoolmates hold important positions. 'Remember me,' he insisted, 'we will bring Chavez down. He'll end up in jail.' I thought he was fooling around, trying to show off because of his power and connections. Then he took me to the place where his cars are parked and showed me his collection of luxury cars: Hummers, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mercedes. 'When you want I'll lend you one of these so you can take your daughters to Orlando' -- that surprised me ... A few weeks later, in April, I read that a coup against Chavez had taken place. I remembered my friend Guido, of his words,  'Chavez won't last long.We will bring him down.' I called him to ask him what was happening in Caracas.  He didn't answer ... I didn't see him again until one morning, five years later, when I opened a newspaper in Buenos Aires and I saw that photo of that fat 'good-guy' accused of being the 'suitcase man,' that mysterious passenger that arrived in a private jet coming from Caracas and wanted to illegally bring in a suitcase with $800,000 in cash. The first thing I thought was,'Lucky (for me) that he didn't lend me his car to go to Disney.' The next thing I though was, 'But wasn't this fat man conspiring against Chavez?' "

Yes ... and that is the big question, "But wasn't this fat man conspiring against Chavez?"

If Wilson is a friend of CAP, who has made several public calls for the assassination of Chavez, and if Wilson hates Chavez' guts, as seen in Bayly's article, then how does Wilson end up with a suitcase of Chavez government money destined to go to pro-Chavez Kirshner?

Does that make sense to you?  Not to me, it doesn't.  But the real question is, why did the US government get involved in the matter?  This is my take. If Wilson was trying to smuggle his own money into Argentina, the US government would have no reason to get involved, letting Wilson fight his own legal battle.  If the money which Wilson was carrying did indeed come from the Venezuelan government, then again, the US government would have no reason to get involved, letting Wilson and the Argentinean and Venezuelan government fight it out between themselves.  The mass media would quickly get a hold of the story and have a worldwide anti-Chavez circus performance, which would more than satisfy the US government's ongoing propaganda campaign against Chavez. The fact is that the US government did get involved in the case, after the fact.  But why? It just doesn't make sense. There has to be a reason why the US government got involved in this case ... one of  probably hundreds of money laundering cases which go on worldwide on regular basis. What I believe is happening is that Wilson was working for the CIA as a money-mule. The $800,000 was probably not destined for Kirchner, but probably for subversive anti-Kirchner CIA operations within Argentina. Wilson had probably told CIA directors that there was no risk in him bringing the cash to Argentina (as he probably has done for the CIA in many Latin American countries) because he is a big-shot and because, in addition, he'd be flying in a private jet with PDVSA directors who would not be searched or interrogated. But, he was wrong this time. After Wilson was caught at the Buenos Aires airport by honest customs officers who reported it, everything went quiet for a while (at least in the US media) ... until the US government became openly involved some time later. This is what I believe may have happened. The Argentinean police, under some kind of money laundering cooperation treaty, probably contacted the FBI immediately and opened an investigation file with them.  The file with the FBI was probably opened without the CIA having had a chance to stop it ... or perhaps the CIA couldn't legally do anything about the FBI file being opened.  Since and if the FBI file was opened, the CIA probably had no choice but to make a deal with the FBI to have the FBI either not get involved in the investigation file with Argentina or slow it down considerably giving time for the CIA (the US government) to cover up the whole affair before any evidence was found linking Wilson to the CIA. The smart people at the CIA, behind Wilson's back, probably decided this was a good time to invent a story implicating both Wilson and Chavez ... two birds with one stone ...  to divert all attention away from them ... public media attacks on Chavez and ... make Wilson look like the bad guy one way or the other.  With their story (that the money Wilson was carrying was coming from the Chavez government), they probably figured Wilson would either eventually be implicated with Chavez as a spy and thus sought after by the American courts ... or, if he could prove otherwise, he would have to deal with the American and Argentinean courts on a personal level for money laundering and lying to customs agents and investigators. He would surely never say that he was involved in a CIA operation since they had probably threatened him at the beginning of the sequence of events.  But they were wrong again. At first, Wilson said that the money was his (probably to not implicate the CIA), but then when the CIA backstabbed him by surprise with the invention of the story that it was Chavez' money and that Wilson had met Chavez (to entrap Wilson), Wilson said that the money wasn't his, that it was someone else's who was on the flight with him, someone who worked for Chavez (or something of that nature) and that he did not know the money was in the suitcase.  Then, when Wilson realized the CIA was in the process of backstabbing him to protect their own skins, he probably approached them and said something like, "Your tricks aren't working and I'm not going down for you guys. If I am forced to testify, I'll take the CIA down with me, and all of you guys personally, the whole lot of you.  I'll spill the beans if I have to.  Get off my back and fix it now. If you don't, I'll not only spill the beans in the courts, but I'll tell the worldwide media about it. You guys don't need that publicity, do you?" And this is where Wilson probably gave them an idea, "Find some scapegoats ... like my business competitors in Miami, so and so, and so.  Make sure they take the rap, make sure their bank accounts are seized, make sure they are charged and found guilty of spying or whatever ... I want them out of business anyways.  And remember, if you don't comply, I will spill the beans."   So, the whole ever-more-confusing story we have been hearing more recently in the media about the arrest of several Venezuelan businessmen in the Miami area who are charged with things like spying for the Venezuelan government (unregistered foreign agents) and lying to investigators and all that was probably fabricated by the CIA and by the US government with the intent of diverting attention from the real culprits (the CIA) while trying to make sure that Wilson doesn't spill the beans.  Then, once the accused "culprits" are prosecuted, sentenced and jailed, the FBI can simply "close the file," leaving the Argentinean police in suspended animation ... and Wilson plenty of time to leave the USA.  It looks to me like the CIA is cooperating with Wilson.

That's my take on the story ... and I have good reason to believe in such a scenario.  I personally met a CIA operative who spent a few years doing subversive CIA work in Argentina, based in Buenos Aires. I know for a fact that the CIA operated (s) in Argentina ... and this suitcase story is just too weird to be anything innocent or normal. The other thing is, why would Bayly, a complete anti-Chavez person, spill the beans on Wilson?  Ah ... another interesting piece of the puzzle.

My take on this is that Bayly perhaps had something to do with the fat man, perhaps something regarding one of the many TV shows which Bayly was involved in, perhaps in Miami, and things turned sour between them.  Maybe Bayly was promised something by Wilson, and Wilson back-stabbed him?  Super-wealthy people don't make money by being nice guys, do they?

"But wasn't this fat man conspiring against Chavez?"

Oscar Heck
oscarheck111@yahoo.com