Argentine Congress criticizes US government

by Debora Rey

Argentina's Congress criticized the United States on Wednesday over an alleged cover-up involving a cash-stuffed suitcase that U.S. prosecutors say was bound for President Cristina Fernandez's campaign.

U.S. prosecutors say a Venezuelan-American man who brought $800,000 to Argentina for Fernandez's campaign was offered $2 million by Venezuelan agents to keep quiet and help cover up the source of the money.

Fernandez describes herself as the victim of dirty politics by the U.S. intended to undermine Argentina's relationship with Venezuela. But the U.S. insists its prosecutors act independently and have pursued the case without influence from the White House.

The Argentine Congress, controlled by Fernandez's left-leaning ruling coalition, passed a resolution Wednesday repudiating the U.S. government over the investigation, which led to the arrests of four men last week in Miami.

The resolution passed by the lower house and Senate said the U.S. government "encouraged a nefarious intelligence operation whose direct consequence was the denigration of the presidency of our nation."

Former President Nestor Kirchner, whose wife succeeded him as president this month, said the campaign cash scandal was a U.S. attempt to tarnish his wife's new government.

He said the U.S. government had resorted to a "band of mafiosos" to attack his wife's government only days after her Dec. 10 inauguration to a four-year term.

The U.S. is refusing Argentina's request to extradite Guido Antonini Wilson, the Venezuelan-American businessman who fled Argentina after bringing in the cash-filled suitcase.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has dismissed as "big lies" the allegations by U.S. prosecutors that his government had tried to cover up the attempted cash delivery to Fernandez's campaign.

It was unclear how the scandal would affecting U.S. relations with Argentina, which generally smooth under left-leaning Kirchner and not expected to change with his wife.

In March, as President Bush traveled to friendly Latin American nations to shore up relations, Venezuela's Chavez held a stadium rally in Argentina and blasted Bush and U.S. policies.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Earl Anthony Wayne met with Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana and said he told Taiana that the "relationship is important" to both governments and their peoples, an embassy statement said.

But Kirchner directed pointed comments at Wayne in a public speech on Tuesday.

"I say to the ambassador that what they are doing is a disgrace, so the relations are not good, Mr. Ambassador."

Source: Miami Herald