Venezuelan Chavista agents arrested in the US for voting plot

Updated Th 12:46 PST.

I seriously need to learn how to make a good Dulce de Lechosa.

OK, this is the news that is flying all over the internet, here from the Department of Justice, here from the Miami Herald.

And this a little bit of info about these guys:

From here and there sources I am not gonna mention. If you have something to add or clarify be my guest.

Carlos Kauffman is married to the sister (or sister in-law) of Governor of Miranda, Diosdado Cabello.

Kauffman along with Franklin Duran and Daniel Albornoz, are the owners of the oil and chemical company Venoco (Venoco was owned by HL Boulton and the Sosa Family who became in bad terms with the government after April 11, 2002, since Pedro Carmona was the President of this company). Venoco, now, is again in very good terms with the Chavista Bolivarian government and is a contratist of PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela).

Kauffman, along with Guido Antonini Wilson, have a armament factory in Croatia and have a lots of armament deals with the Bolivarian government of Venezuela, waaay back then.

Wilson, Duran and Kauffman, like the good rich boys they are, love racing cars and have been seeing around in races in Europe, driving shining and very expensive sports cars (expensive means $ 300,000 Ferraris, ok?).

Wilson, who is linked to Venoco as a partner, although Venoco says no, is also linked to Pedro Guerrero, contact of Armor Holdings in Miami (Armor Holdings, subsidiary of BAE Systems, is in the production and sales of military armament).

Moises Maionica was the man to whom Jorge Rodriguez, actual Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, bought the capta-huellas (fingerprint id) machines for the 2006 electoral process, when he was president of the CNE. As a matter of fact, Moises Maionica was the legal representative of Cogent Systems in Venezuela, the company who made the capta-huellas machines. But the connection with Jorge Rodriguez doesn't end there. There's this talk that he also was the one who bought Jorge Rodriguez his exclusive luxury condominium in Altamira, Caracas (in the same apt building where Carlos Andres Perez used to live). Maionica is also very good pal with Julio Montes, which was a judiciary advisor for the Ministerio de la Vivienda (Housing Department).

Franklin Duran, who according to FT the US authorities had a recored tape in which he is mentioning that the money caught on Antonini Wilson in Buenos Aires "was intended to go to Ms Fernández's presidential campaign" has a website from his company (Ruibal & Duran) and a wikipedia entrance that everybody should see and judge for themselves. (The website of the company looks too Jukt Micronics to me, you know what I mean? This looks like a front company to me. Although, I found out later than Ruibal and Duran is the exclusive representative of Armor Holdings in Venezuela.)

Carlos Kaufman, Moises Maionica and Franklin Duran are in the same crowd (or family if you want to use mafia terms) of the one of Alex Del Nogal, detained in Italy for drug trafficking. Apparently, these guys are involved BIG TIME in money laundering.

My source also puts Maionica, Duran and Kauffmann as the guys who charge commission for depositing money from the state government in the banks. People say that the governor of Anzoátegui is up to his eyeballs in this guiso, as well as Jhonny Yanez Rangel and "ojitos lindos" Diosdado Cabello.

I don't know anything about Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez and Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello (Paciello is the Uruguayan of the party) but I am sure something will soon come out of the surface about this pair. I will keep ya updated.

More about this news, of course in the blog of Miguel and the one of Daniel (who hasn't published about this yet, but surely he will come with a great account of the facts).

One thing is for sure, Chavez is really, really happy that her friend Cristina Kirchner won the elections. Did he helped her to get there? And, why not if he is giving away money like it is Monopoly money.

Note: There is also another Maletagate incident in Bolivia, that didn't create that much of a scandal, but another man was fund with another suitcase full of cash in Bolivia, on board of a military plane who curiously was stoned by an angry mob of Bolivians. Western Hemisphere Policy Watch has an interesting post about it.

Note 2: It is important to mention that Kauffman doesn't belong to the family who owns the Cementerio del Este. It's another Kauffman family who also have a man named Carlos in it. Not the same dude.

About Mr. Manners

"No government in the political history had been ever so respectful, tolerant, patient, and compliant with the Constitution and the laws as the current government."

-Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Rodríguez

Uh-uhmm yeah... they are so, so, so respectful, that the government of Brazil is asking Chavez to apologize for offending the Brazil's senate otherwise they won't endorse Venezuelan entry to Mercosur.

"The process is likely to be delayed, following Chávez recent offenses against the Senate, which he branded as "a parrot that repeats anything Washington says."

"The Parrots" from Brazil were protesting against the blatant abuse of Chavez to close RCTV, Venezuela's biggest and most watched TV channel.

Well, if he said that to the senators of Brazil, just imagine the way Chavistas treat the defenseless citizens inside Venezuela who signed a recall against him and that they are marked on the Tascon and Maisanta List. From getting a passport, to a federal job inteview, or any government license that poor Venezuelan mortals have to get from THEIR employees, their government.

Chavez, in the meantime is travelling to Russia (also Belarus and Iran), where its visit has been put under the carpet (he he, you). Chavez said he is not interested in "joining an old Mercosur." The funny thing is that he ONLY wants to join Mercosur to make it as a anti-yankee platform.