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Viewing cable 08BUENOSAIRES1550, ARGENTINA: ANTONINI-WILSON CLAIMS NESTOR KIRCHNER

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08BUENOSAIRES1550 2008-11-12 20:30 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Buenos Aires
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1550/01 3172030
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 122030Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2453
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1895
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001550 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SNAR KCOR KLIG CJAN AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: ANTONINI-WILSON CLAIMS NESTOR KIRCHNER 
"KNEW EVERYTHING" BUT GOA STAYS MUM 
 
REF: BUENOS AIRES 1522 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1. (SBU) Summary and introduction:  Argentine daily "La 
Nacion" prominently published November 9 a lengthy exclusive 
interview with dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizen Guido 
Antonini-Wilson (A-W), who was intercepted by GOA authorities 
in August 2007 with a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 arriving 
on a chartered flight from Caracas.  Although much of the 
interview rehashed what A-W has said in court in Miami and on 
CNN, the interview contained a few newsworthy nuggets, 
including A-W's claim that then-GOA official Claudio Uberti 
had told him that "Nestor Kirchner (NK) knew everything" 
about the incident and that NK said "they were going to back 
me up all the way."  A-W also claimed that at the airport he 
was not allowed to declare that the suitcase belonged to 
Uberti; that he signed under duress a statement admitting the 
suitcase was his; that Uberti offered to get him a lucrative 
GOA beef export license in exchange for his cooperation; and 
that a cohort paid airport police officer Maria Lujan Telpuk 
a $5,000 bribe.  A-W also repeated previous claims, including 
that the money in the suitcase came from Venezuelan oil 
parastatal PDVSA and was destined for the presidential 
campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK); that he 
attended a meeting at the Casa Rosada; that he received other 
assurances from Uberti; that he was pressured to cooperate 
and feared reprisal; and that he overheard discussion of 
another $4.2 million on the flight.  The Argentine 
opposition, led in this instance by Civic Coalition head 
Elisa Carrio, seized the opportunity to denounce Kirchner's 
direction of illegal activities and announced plans to 
present a criminal complaint in hopes of requiring Kirchner 
to testify in court.  The GOA has not responded to the A-W 
interview, but the Argentine magistrate investigating 
criminal charges against A-W formally asked the Ministry of 
Justice to report on the status of Argentina's request for 
the extradition of A-W from the United States.  He also asked 
the MOH the status of his request for access to evidence 
obtained by the U.S. judicial system.  We wonder if the time 
has come when the suitcase saga finally fades away.  End 
summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Argentine daily newspaper of record "La Nacion" 
carried in its Sunday edition, November 9, a lengthy 
"exclusive" interview, starting on page one, with dual 
U.S.-Venezuelan citizen Guido Antonini-Wilson (A-W), who was 
intercepted by GOA authorities in August 2007 with a suitcase 
stuffed with $800,000 arriving on a chartered flight from 
Caracas.  A-W fled to the United States in August 2007, and 
the GOA has a request pending for his extradition.  Most 
recently he was a key witness in the Miami trial and 
conviction of Franklin Duran for acting as an unregistered 
agent of the Venezuelan government.  La Nacion's interview 
with A-W took place in Fort Lauderdale. 
 
3. (SBU) Although much of the interview rehashed what A-W has 
said in court in Miami and on CNN, there were some newsworthy 
nuggets, including A-W's claim that then-GOA official Claudio 
Uberti had told him that "Nestor Kirchner (NK) knew 
everything" about the incident and that NK said "they were 
going to back me up all the way."  A-W said Uberti had told 
him, the day after the airport interception, that Kirchner 
had asked him about A-W.  According to A-W, Kirchner was told 
of A-W's stance at the airport, Kirchner allegedly said to 
Uberti, "That man is a stud, and since that man backed us up, 
we will back him up all the way."  A-W said he got the 
impression that Uberti told him this "to make me feel party 
to the crime."  He also claimed that Uberti offered to get 
him a lucrative GOA beef export license in exchange for his 
cooperation. 
 
4. (SBU) In the interview, A-W also claimed that at the 
airport he was not allowed to declare that the suitcase 
belonged to Uberti.  He said he told several GOA officials at 
the airport that the money was not his, and that he 
specifically told Argentine Customs officials Jorge Lamastra 
and Maria Cristina Gallini that the money belonged to Uberti. 
 A-W said that, at the insistence of the GOA officials, he 
signed a statement admitting the suitcase was his. 
Otherwise, he would not have been able to leave the airport. 
 
5. (SBU) A new detail (for us) was A-W's assertion that a 
cohort (the 19-year-old son of PDVSA executive Diego 
Uzcategui) paid two airport police officers, including Maria 
Lujan Telpuk, a $5,000 bribe.  (Telpuk later testified in the 
Miami trial of Franklin Duran as a defense witness.)  A-W 
also repeated previous claims, including that the money in 
the suitcase came from Venezuelan oil parastatal PDVSA and 
was destined for the presidential campaign of Cristina 
 
Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK), that he attended an event at the 
Casa Rosada presidential palace, that he received other 
assurances from Uberti, that he was pressured to cooperate 
and feared reprisal, and that he overheard discussion of 
another $4.2 million on the flight. 
 
6. (SBU) In a follow-up story on November 10, "La Nacion" 
reported that opposition Civic Coalition leader Elisa Carrio 
was planning to file a criminal complaint against Nestor 
Kirchner for racketeering.  A closer reading of the article 
indicates, however, that Carrio's complaint is based 
primarily on Kirchner's alleged plan to abscond with private 
retirement plans (AFJPs) currently being confiscated by the 
GOA, and only indirectly or secondarily for his alleged 
involvement with the $800,000 suitcase.  Carrio said she 
would ask the court to summon Kirchner for a deposition. 
Other opposition leaders also seized the opportunity to 
denounce Kirchner and call on the courts to investigate his 
alleged involvement in illegal activities.  Opposition 
deputies Carlos Raimundi and Eduardo Macaluse noted they had 
doubts about A-W's credibility but thought the GOA still owed 
some explanations. 
 
7. (SBU) The GOA has not responded to the A-W interview, 
maintaining a reserved silence.  This stands in sharp 
contrast to previous instances such as November 5, when 
Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez called A-W a 
"good-for-nothing" who had been paid for his testimony. 
However, "La Nacion" reported November 11 that Judge Daniel 
Petrone, the Argentine magistrate investigating money 
laundering and contraband charges against A-W, had sent a 
formal note asking the Ministry of Justice to report on the 
status of Argentina's request for the extradition of A-W from 
the United States.  "La Nacion" noted the extradition request 
was over one year old, and that the Argentine courts had 
received no response.  Petrone also asked the MOJ about his 
request for access to evidence obtained by the U.S. judicial 
system.  "La Nacion" said Petrone was waiting for 
authorization to travel to the United States to gather 
evidence and interview the "protagonists in the trial of the 
Venezuelan (Franklin Duran) who, according to the Miami 
courts, tried to silence Antonini."  Other media outlets 
reported that Argentine Ambassador Hector Timerman had 
"again" appealed to the State Department for A-W's 
extradition. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
8. (SBU) There was little new information in the A-W 
interview and related articles, and A-W did little to bolster 
his credibility with his defensive and self-serving 
recollection of events, but La Nacion's headlines ("Kirchner 
knew everything" and "he said they were going to back me all 
the way") were provocative enough to make us wonder if there 
would be some harsh GOA reaction.  Publicly, there has been 
none, but we may yet pay a price in private.  (Two days 
before the A-W interview was published, a high GOA official 
told the CDA that he could still offer no new date for 
bilateral consultations that had been canceled because "they" 
-- the Kirchners -- were still unhappy with what had come out 
of the Miami trial.)  Judging from the general reaction to 
the "La Nacion" interview, we wonder whether the suitcase 
saga may be nearing the end of its life cycle, as it seems to 
fade from the Argentine public's already-fatigued 
consciousness, and the opposition will be hard-pressed to 
elicit a judicial investigation by the easily intimidated or 
coopted federal court system. 
 
KELLY