The former Minister of Federal Planning, Julio De Vidotestified this Wednesday, March 29, before the Oral Economic Criminal Court No. 1, in the framework of the case for the entry of businessman Antonini Wilson with a suitcase with almost 800 thousand dollars, occurred in August 2007.
In the investigative statement, De Vido assured that his ministry was not in charge of the management of the state oil company ENARSA, which hired the flight from Caracas that arrived in the early hours of August 4, 2007, on which the businessman next to Claudio Uberti (former head of the Road Concessions Control Agency and also accused) and agency officials.
In his testimony, De Vido –present at the hearing via Zoom– affirmed that I didn’t know Antonini Wilsonseparated from what happened and explained that the event occurred in the context of the visit of the then president Hugo Chavezwhich ended with “several agreements signed” and an act at the Casa Rosada.
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In this sense, the former official referred to the commercial relationship between Venezuela and Argentina during the government of Néstor Kirchner, and told regarding a meeting that took place in 2006, with Thomas Shannon and another official from the United States Department of State. In that meeting, he said, the increase in the commercial relationship between the two countries would have been questioned, according to what he stated infobae.
On the other hand, De Vido hinted that Claudio Uberti –former head of the Organo de Control de Concesiones Viales (OCCOVI) and also accused in the trial– was not an official close to him, as indicated. “I had more right hands than an octopus”he said in an ironic tone when referring to the causes that he considers armed once morest him.
What Ricardo Echegaray declared
At the hearing, although in person, another of the defendants also testified, the then head of the AFIP Ricardo Echegaray. Regarding the fact, he denied having given instructions to Customs officials or others involved in the operation.
He also questioned the accusation once morest him: “What should I have reported? I cannot find an element that says that I should have denounced ”, said.
Echegaray said that he found out what happened the next day, around 10 in the morning: “I was sleeping or I didn’t answer the phone. Someone notified me and then I received the call from Siomara Ayerán (who was the head of Customs)”.
That day, he said, he had several conversations by phone with Uberti, and he recounted the link they had: “I knew him from Río Gallegos, but we didn’t have regular contact. I entered the government in 2004, I did not belong to the groups that were prepared to lead the country, ”he said.
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Antonini Wilson: what happened on August 4, 2007
On August 4, 2007, Venezuelan-American businessman Antonini Wilson tried to pass through customs control at the Jorge Newbery metropolitan airport in the City of Buenos Aires one suitcase with 790,550 dollars.
The aircraft from Caracas arrived at the southern terminal of Aeroparque private flights at dawn, and came from its country of origin, Venezuela. It was a private flight contracted at that time by the state company Enarsa.
On that flight, Antonini Wilson was traveling with Uberti and officials from the Road Concessions Control Body, with whom he came to Buenos Aires to participate in the presidential summit between Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez: in those days it was yet to be defined who would be the Kirchner’s candidate in the presidential elections.
Two days following the discovery, the meeting of the leaders was held at Balcarce 50, in which officials and businessmen from both countries participated. Sources of the investigation indicated that Antonini entered thanks to Jose Maria Olazagasti, former private secretary and right-hand man of Julio De Vido. The images that confirm the presence of the “valijero” in Casa Rosada sparked an international scandal.
Antonini Wilson, considered a “rebel” by the Argentine Justice because he left the country as soon as what happened was made public, settled in the United States and his extradition was not achieved.
AG / ED
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