Argentine Prez Campaign Cash Tied to Chavez

$800,000 in suitcase seized en route to Kirchner, US says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2007 4:29 AM CST
Argentine Prez Campaign Cash Tied to Chavez
Cristina Fernandez wears the presidential sash after being sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president at the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. At left Argentina's departing President Nestor Kirchner, and second left, Argentina's Vice President Daniel Scioli. (AP Photo/Jorge...   (Associated Press)

US prosecutors are accusing the Hugo Chavez government of sneaking donations to the election campaign of new Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, writes the Guardian. A suitcase filled with $800,000, seized at Buenos Aires airport , was on its way from Caracas to Kirchner, one of the men involved in the delivery says. Kirchner angrily denied the allegations, calling them "garbage in international politics."

"This president may be a woman but she's not going to allow herself to be pressured," she said. Three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan were arrested this week and charged, in Miami, of coming to America to pressure the man who carried the suitcase—a South Florida resident with US and Venezualan citizenship—into keeping the source of the cash secret. (More Cristina Kirchner stories.)

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