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Kirchner denies US claim Chavez tried to fund campaign
BUENOS AIRES
Petroleumworld.com 14 12 07Argentina's new President Cristina Kirchner on Thursday angrily denied a US claim that Venezuela's leftist leader Hugo Chavez had sought to funnel 800,000 dollars into her presidential campaign.
She dismissed the claim as "garbage" saying, in reference to the US government, that "rather than friendly nations, they want subordinate countries."
The allegation was made on Friday at a court hearing in Miami for three Venezuelans and an Uruguayan national alleged to have tried to cover up the funding operation.
The four, who were arrested on Monday, were charged with failing to notify US authorities they were agents of the Venezuelan government.
The arrests followed the seizure in August of a bag with 800,000 dollars in cash found in Buenos Aires aboard a chartered flight from Caracas.
Antonini Wilson, who was carrying the suitcase, later flew back to his home in Miami, where the four defendants are alleged to have pressed him not to reveal the source of the cash or its intended recipient.
At Wednesday's court hearing, Assistant US Attorney Thomas Mulvihill said defendant Franklin Duran, 40, mentioned in a recorded conversation that the money was for the electoral campaign of Cristina Kirchner, who was sworn in as president on Monday.
Chavez critics claim the firebrand Venezuelan president has pumped large amounts of cash into the presidential campaigns of fellow-leftists in Latin America over recent years.
Argentina's new president and her predecessor, husband Nestor Kirchner, are considered close allies of Chavez.
But Argentina's chief of cabinet, Alberto Fernandez claimed on Thursday the allegations raised in the US court were part of "a formidable operation by US intelligence" which "defies human intelligence."
He insisted US authorities should extradite Wilson to Argentina, "so he can explain what happened."
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday denounced the Miami arrests as a right-wing plot "against the continent's progressive governments."
Story from AFP 13 1651 GMT 12 07
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