Excerpts of column "Runrunes" (Rumors) of Thursday, September 13

High

THE SUITCASE & Co. On August 14, 2007, in my section Runrunes, on radio Onda FM, I disclosed that Argentinean customs authorities of Ezeiza airport caught Venezuelan Guido Antonini Wilson in possession of a suitcase stuffed with USD 800 in cash that he intended to bring in Argentina in landing from a flight chartered by Argentinean utility Enarsa, together with officials of both Argentinean and Venezuelan governments. Two days later, in this column, I reported that Antonini surrendered to the FBI as soon as he arrived in Miami onboard a flight from Uruguay. I spelled out Antonini's  examination as a protected witness at the place of a friend of him in Plantation. Today, five years later, in-depth reference is made for the first time of the "Venezuelan of the suitcase," as termed by daily newspaper La Nación of Buenos Aires. The death of Sergeant Antonio Canchica last Saturday (September  8) in Fuerte Tiuna fort after "falling down from the fourth floor" raised the alarm again among the parties to the "case of the Pdvsa suitcase." Canchica was an army sergeant when the current Minister of Defense Henry Rangel Silva, then the director of the Directorate for Intelligence, Security, and Prevention (Disip), sent him to Miami to "administer an affidavit signed by Antonini explaining the reasons for the cash as part of a commission by the Venezuelan oil company."  The sergeant fled to the United States once his capture was ordered after having recorded and photographed him together with Antonini. He fled Florida on a launch and then took a patrol boat for Cuba. In the island, he was picked up by a plane of the Venezuelan government. In 2008, Canchica was promoted to his higher military rank and he acted as chief financial officer of Minister Rangel Silva. He had expressed his disappointment because the government had failed to promote him again, grant some other incumbency, or increase his wage. It turned out that he would "tell what he knew." He was buried on that same day. No information, as usual.

ALVARO URIBE. During our show La Cola Feliz on radio Éxitos FM (The Happy Bottleneck) we had a chat with the Colombian ex-president. I will post the interview on www.runrun.es. He told us interesting things. For instance, he has not met or ever talked to Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Uribe rails on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for deeming him a liar and two-faced regarding the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Uribe did confirm that on several occasions he would deliver his Venezuelan counterpart papers, CDs and pen-drives containing the location including coordinates and satellite views of the camps of FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuelan territory. Uribe related that once the Venezuelan government invited Colombian military officers to visit one of these sites after clearing them. It seemed that Colombian President Juan Manuel was Chávez's biggest enemy.

Intermediate

KENYA. The tangle is being undone. The trip to Nairobi of a Venezuelan lawyer, a former career diplomat and ambassador, as an attorney of Dwight Sagaray's relatives could help find the source of that what is intended to be hidden. So far, the report found that Sagaray was appointed by all-powerful Erik Malpica Flores, a nephew of (former Congress Speaker) Cilia Flores, and director general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Deputy Minister for African Affairs Reinaldo Bolívar had nothing to do with the appointment. Besides, I was told that not even Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro meets with him. (...) In Kenya, two reporters of global media are conducting a well-aimed investigation.

COINCIDENCE? Following the claims of several ex Pdvsa workers concerning careless maintenance of the burnt Amuay refinery, Minister of Petroleum and Mining and Pdvsa President Rafael Ramírez ordered to reactivate a lawsuit against 185 of them for the nationwide strike of 2002. Summonses were served on August 20. Some "spontaneous" attendees are current employees at the state-run oil company. The National Guard and the Military Intelligence Directorate surrounded the only defendant that dared to appear in court. The rest refused to take part in the "execution." The grounds for the charges for damages to the public property were read out; hearings were scheduled until October 4. Under the law, the "property damage" caused by the strike, as repeated by red media outlets, will amount to USD 9 billion.

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