2nd Venezuelan found with suspicious cash
BY GERARDO REYES
Another scandal has erupted over Venezuelans allegedly carrying large amounts of money around Latin America -- this time a man identified as an armed forces intelligence captain found with some $800,000 in Bolivia.
A Bolivian police commander said the man was carrying a contract worth $870,000, not cash. But opposition Sen. Walter Guiteras and a community activist said he had $827,000 in cash.
Luís Michel Klein Ferrer was found Dec. 6 in the Bolivian provincial town of Riberalta after a Venezuelan air force C-130 cargo plane took off without him when residents opposed to Venezuela's influence in Bolivia began throwing rocks at the aircraft.
Klein's case does not appear related to the case of Guido Antonini Wilson, caught with nearly $800,000 in undeclared cash when he landed at an Argentine airport in August. Four men are under arrest in Miami, accused of acting as Venezuelan government agents in pressing Antonini to cover up that the money was for Argentina's presidential campaign.
Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez is a strong supporter of his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, and his embassy representatives regularly deliver checks to municipal government officials around Bolivia.
Klein's case apparently began when the C-130 carrying him landed in Riberalta for a reported refueling stop. Rumors spread that the plane was carrying weapons for Morales supporters. Area residents -- most of whom oppose the president -- began stoning the aircraft.
The aircraft took off in a hurry, according to witnesses and Bolivian newspaper accounts, and left behind Klein, who was wearing a military uniform and had a military style haircut.
Riberalta community activist Mario Aguilera said Klein then boarded a van headed for Guayadamerín, a town on the border with Brazil. But he was intercepted by protesters who noticed his uniform and followed him from the airport.
''The people wanted to lynch the Venezuelan when he was trying to escape in a van, but we took him to the police and we handed him over,'' Aguilera told El Nuevo Herald in a telephone interview.
''We cannot permit that this government is at the service of Don Hugo Chávez, and give them the green light to come in and disrespect our national dignity,'' he added.
Aguilera said he was told the money was in cash, and added that regional officials later claImed that the money was part of a Venezuelan aid program.
Three days after the incident, regional police commander Miguel Angel Villarroel was quoted in the newspaper La Razón as saying Klein was not carrying cash but rather a contract for programs worth $870,000.
The Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias broadcast a report last week showing Klein, apparently talking to police to explain his presence in Bolivia. From a black bag he pulls out an envelope, a clock, an air ticket and deodorant. The camera then cuts to a mid-sized black bag stuffed with rows of cash.
Klein was not arrested and apparently left the country later. The Venezuelan government has not commented on his case.
Bolivia's minister of government, Juan Ramón Quintana, identified Klein as an official of the Venezuelan Development Bank, which finances social and economic development in Venezuela and abroad.
But a Venezuelan military court ruling posted on the Internet identifies Klein as a captain with the Investigative Directorate of the General Directorate of Military Intelligence.
The June 2004 ruling names Klein as one of the investigators in a highly publicized case alleging a military plot to rebel and assassinate Chávez. The alleged plot was uncovered when Venezuelan police arrested several dozen Colombians suspected of being members of right-wing paramilitary groups at the Daktari farm near the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
After taking off from Riberalata, the Venezuelan C-130 made an emergency landing in the Brazilan city of Rio Branco, according to the French news agency AFP.
AFP quoted a spokesman for the federal police as saying the plane ``had little fuel and some broken window glass. We don't know what happened in Bolivia, but apparently it was the target of some hostilities.''
