Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Ecuador: No official winner yet

As of 9:40am Eastern:
As reported yesterday, early results showed opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso as the winner of yesterday’s presidential election, while later in the evening the CNE (National Election Council) declared Lenín Moreno as winning the preliminary count.

The CNE website is now up, showing as of the writing of this post:

Lasso 48.8% with 4,813,217 votes
Moreno 51.16% with 5,0142,295

However, last night the CNE’s results showed otherwise. Argentinian journalist Jorge Lanata tweeted a screen capture showing Lasso ahead on total votes and Moreno ahead by 2+ percentage points, with the comment,
“#IMustSay ECUADOR is the first country where 4,621,654 voters equals 48.93%. And 4,523,513 equals 51.07%. #Fraud”

Lasso tweeted a screen capture, “This is only one example of the records showing inconsistencies. They’ve switched their votes for ours.”

Also last night AP reported

Thousands of outraged supporters of opposition Ecuadorean presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso shouted “fraud” and broke through metal barricades to almost reach the entrance of the electoral council’s headquarters in Quito before being pushed back by police. A similar scuffle took place outside the electoral offices in Guayaquil.

The WSJ this morning,

With 95% of the votes counted late Sunday, Mr. Moreno had 51.11% support, compared with 48.89% for Guillermo Lasso, the national electoral council said on its website. It has yet to officially announce a winner.

A quick count by Participacion Ciudadana, a Quito-based nongovernment organization that promotes democracy, said there was a technical tie between the candidates.

Here’s this morning’s press conference,

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Argentina: Did Trump press Macri for a building approval?

Ed Morrissey brought to my attention an article that claims that Donald Trump pressed Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri about a stalled building project,

According to a report in the Argentine paper La Nacion, when President Mauricio Macri called Trump to congratulate him on winning the election, Trump used the opportunity to urge him to clear the way for a stalled office building development.

Talking Points Memo translated the story, which included comments from well-respected local journalist Jorge Lanata.

“Macri called him. This still hasn’t emerged but Trump asked for them to authorize a building he’s constructing in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t just a geopolitical chat,” said Lanata.

Long-time readers of my blog remember that I have posted Lanata’s reports, especially on the Nisman assassination and on the Kirchner money trail.

Since Lanata’s allegation was made during last night’s TV show, I watched the full show on YouTube, here,

Lanata got a lot of mileage out of the story: during his opening monologue (see above), during the cartoon, and during his reporters’ panel. I’ll skip to the panel.

At 54 minutes into the video, Lanata said that his reporter Maxi Montenegro had heard the alleged Macri-Trump conversation. Montenegro, however, not only did not affirm either way, but talked about income tax reform, a totally unrelated subject.

At 1:03 into the video Romina Manguel described the upcoming Trump Tower US$150 million, 35-story office building, in Buenos Aires as “one of Trump’s most important investments”.

She stated that “a long time ago” a group of investors purchased a three-story parking garage in the Nueve de Julio avenue in downtown Buenos Aires. In 2007 those owners could not get a building permit, and YY Development Group, partners with Trump in a Punta Del Este, Uruguay, hotel, approached them with plans to build a Trump Tower at that site. (As you can see from the link, the Punta del Este building is residential, not a hotel.)

According to Manguel, the Buenos Aires Trump office building was granted the necessary permits early this year “before anyone thought Trump would be elected President,” and was scheduled to start construction in July next year, but following Trump’s win, the city legislature said the permits “may need renewing”.

Mangel and the other panelists clarified that in the US it is considered inappropriate for a President-elect to bring up the building approval subject, while it’s not in Argentina.

As much as I respect Lanata’s work, this story strikes me as based on hearsay.

First, there’s no actual evidence of what transpired during the actual conversation.

Second, the main source of the information conveyed to La Nación is Felipe Yaryura, a partner of YY Development Group (the other partner is Moisés Yellati, hence YY).

Yaryura claims to have been “at Trump’s bunker” at the NY Hilton during election night, and asserts that he’s the one who talked Donald Trump into running for POTUS “a little over a year ago.”

The Buenos Aires Trump office building appears to be one of the many licensing arrangements the Trump organization has made over the years.

So, to summarize:
1. Could the subject have come up during the Macri-Trump call?
Yes, it is possible. I just could not find solid evidence either way from the material I could locate as of the writing of this post.

2. Does Yaryura have much to gain by claiming the issue was brought up, and could he see it as a means of pressuring the city legislators into allowing the construction to go ahead as previously approved?
Yes, indeed.

3, Should Trump place his assets into a blind trust and stay away from any of his businesses from now on until the end of his terms(s)?
Absolutely yes.

4. Is Trump “cashing BIGLY in Argentina”?
Not quite,

Late Update 2:32 PM: Both President Macri and President-Elect Trump have denied that they discussed Trump’s building project during their post-election phone conversation.

Later Update: 2:48 PM: We received this statement from the Trump campaign: “Any reports alleging a discussion about personal business interests between President-elect Trump and President Macri are completely untrue. The Argentine President and his office have also refuted these baseless claims.”

Even Later Update 2:53 PM: And now a full statement from the Embassy of Argentina: “That issue was not part of the conversation between president Mauricio Macri and president-elect Donald Trump. The subject both leaders talked about was the institutional relationship, and they briefly mentioned the personal relationship they have had for years”.

UPDATE
Trending on Bad Blue.

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Argentina: The Kirchner money flow a.k.a. #Cristileaks

Last Sunday Jorge Lanata dedicated his show to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s money flow a.k.a. Cristileaks (video in Spanish),

In brief, Lanata’s investigation alleges that Fernandez and her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, transferred US$492million to 123 sham accounts registered in the state of Nevada during the years they were in office (Néstor from 2003-2010, Cristina from 2010-2015).

In 2014, Lanata had petitioned a Nevada court to release information regarding Kirchner’s companies in the US under a federal statute that allows a party to a legal proceeding outside the United States to ask an American court to obtain evidence for use in the non-US proceeding. The Sunday show calls #Cristileaks a trove of 3,500 pages of documents itemizing the transactions.

The transactions involved banks in the USA, Latvia, Paraguay, Hong Kong, Andorra, and Switzerland (among others) carried by Kirchner proxies, and were managed through Aldyne Ltd. in the Seychelles. The people who served as Kirchner proxies benefited through commissions, pensions, and government contracts.

Additionally, Lanata alleges that U.S. authorities provided Argentina with the information gathered through their money-laundering investigation, and the Argentinian government ignored it. The investigation came about when Argentina refused to honor $50billion worth of defaulting bonds, as bondholders requested the investigation.

Clarín has a detailed report.

Fernandez denies any wrongdoing

“There’s only a small problem with Clarín’s note: They didn’t find an overseas account, nor undeclared or hidden funds, BECAUSE THEY DON’T EXIST.”

Fernandez threatened to sue.

Related:
La Ruta del Dinero K, also at Clarín.

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Argentina: The ephedrine trade’s Perez Corradi is back

Ibar Pérez Corradi, alleged mastermind of the 2008 drug-related “Triple Murder” case has been extradited to Argentina. He had escaped to Brazil, where he was arrested, and deported to Paraguay, where a judge authorized his deportation to Argentina.

The cartels have been moving beyond borders. Back in 2008 I posted on how Mexican drug cartels can use Argentina as an entry (ephedrine/pseudoephedrine) and exit (cocaine) point, as the country became a hub for U.S. methamphetamine and European cocaine. By 2013, Argentina was believed to supply 70 tons of cocaine a year to Europe, a third of its annual consumption.

By last year, Cristina Fernåandez de Kirchner’s cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández was accused of involvement in drug trafficking by those involved in ephedrine trafficking in Jorge Lanata’s television program, Periodismo para Todos (Journalism for Everyone), or PPT.)

Here’s the full episode, in Spanish but NSFW,

Which brings us to Pérez Corradi,

Pérez Corradi is accused of being the brains behind the 2008 crime involving General Rodríguez, in which pharmaceutical executives Sebastián Forza, Damién Ferrón and Leopoldo Bina lost their lives. According to local press, they sold ephedrine to Pérez Corradi, who exported it to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. The problem started when the executives supplied an adulterated shipment to take him out of business.

The brothers Cristian, Martín Lanatta and Víctor Schillaci have already been found guilty for the crime. The three of them were part of a spectacular escape at the end of 2015.

From jail, Martín Lanatta accused Cristina Kirchner’s former Cabinet Head of being behind the murders and of directing the ephedrine traffic into the country. This Tuesday, June 20, he accused Aníbal Fernández again of being an “assassin” and a “drug dealer.”

Lanatta (no relation to journalist Jorge Lanata) claims that Pérez Corradi is not linked to the Mexican cartels, contradicting the press reports on the case.

InSight Crime’s analysis points out,

Argentina’s triple murder case carries strong political overtones. In August 2015, a man sentenced to life in prison for his participation in the scheme told local media that Aníbal Fernández, the cabinet chief for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, maintained ties to the ephedrine trade and had ordered the murders. Fernández vigorously denied the accusations, but Pérez Corradi’s arrest has once again put him — and the Kirchner administration’s possible links to ephedrine trafficking rings — under the microscope.

It remains to be seen whether Pérez Corradi will confess (and take the rap), or whether he will involve higher-ups in the Fernández de Kirchner’s government in exchange for leniency.

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Argentina: Scam selling drugs to Venezuela UPDATED

While the people of Venezuela die for lack of medicine, Argentinean Authorities Investigate Scam to Sell Medicine to Venezuela: Businessmen Linked to Kirchners Allegedly Sell Medicines to Maduro Regime for 10 Times the Cost (emphasis added),

Infobae points out that businessmen Pablo Rubio and Juan José Levy, who owns Farmamed and Esmer laboratories, are behind the illegal export business. They’ve had business with Venezuela for several years now due to deals between former president Cristina Kirchner’s government and the Chávez-Maduro regime involving Argentinean medicine for Venezuelan oil.

Rubio and Levy’s scam was simple enough: Using expired permits,

the shipment’s declared amount was USD $12.9 million, while the invoice for the shipment which Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A. issued to Farmamed S.R.L., an export business, amounted to USD $780,482,000.

Cristina always caterwauled about vulture funds, ignoring her vulture associates,

Infobae reports that Rubio and Levy obtained their contracts due to their close links with Julio de Vido, the former Minister of Planning under Kirchner. As a result of the deals, Venezuela bought medicine from Argentina at 10 times their real market value in the midst of the country’s worsening medicine shortage.

In other Argentina news, Lanata was back last Sunday on Periodismo Para Todos; here’s the show (in Spanish). He starts with the safes Cristina built to keep her money,

UPDATE,
Over in Venezuela, Starving Venezuelan Women Push Through Columbian Border Controls Looking for Food. “We’re desperate, we have nothing: no cooking oil, no sugar, no rice.”

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Argentina: Lazaro Baez busted

“Who the hey is Lázaro Báez?,” you may ask.

Lázaro is a leading government contractor and associate of former president Cristina Kirchner,

Argentine prosecutors alleged that Mr. Báez, whose flagship construction company was set up days before Mr. Kirchner took office in 2003 and who made hundreds of millions of dollars through public projects, transferred money abroad through a global network of shell companies. Officials of Mrs. Kirchner’s administration have said the allegations had political motivations.

For Mossack Fonseca, when it rains, it pours,

Many of these firms were set up in the U.S. state of Nevada by the Mossack Fonseca law firm at the center of global scrutiny.

(No, Báez is not on the list.)

The Panama-based law firm has denied any wrongdoing. On Tuesday, it said that it has no legal liability for the actions of the companies and that it has been the victim of a massive data breach. Mossack Fonseca, which acted as a “resident agent” for the companies, told The Wall Street Journal in 2014 that the companies had “no ties whatsoever to Lázaro Báez or corruption scandals in Argentina.”

The memes are up,

A congresswoman presented a legal complaint against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on charges of illicitly acquiring wealth and forging public documents, but Cristina says her family has no offshore accounts, instead of answering the actual charges.

Which, by the way, is a swipe at Macri, and a presumption of guilt on a common business practice.

For background (in Spanish) on the Kirchners, here’s Jorge Lanata’s La ruta del dinero K (The Route of the K-Money)

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Latin America: Packrat malware targeted #Nisman

Huge, years-long, malware attack on the political opposition and the independent press in the ALBA countries,

Revealed: Mystery 7-year cyberspy campaign in Latin America. Bogus propaganda websites punt malware to likely marks (emphasis added)

Security researchers have uncovered a seven year-long malware campaign against Latin America.

Citizen Lab found that journalists, activists, politicians, and public figures in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela have been targeted by a large-scale hacking campaign since 2008.

The campaign, dubbed Packrat, uses bogus websites and social media accounts for fake opposition groups and news organisations in order to distribute malware and conduct phishing attacks.

The attackers, whom we have named Packrat, have shown a keen and systematic interest in the political opposition and the independent press in so-called ALBA countries (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), and their recently allied regimes. These countries are linked by a trade agreement as well as a cooperation on a range of non-financial matters.

Security tools firm AlienVault uploaded Citizen Lab’s findings on Packrat to its threat-sharing platform OTX in order to warm the general community of the emerging threat and its indicators of compromise. Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary lab focused on global security.

Not only Nisman was hacked, but also Lanata,

The security researchers caught the scent of the Packrat attackers in Ecuador this year before tracing their nefarious activities back to attempts to compromise the devices of Alberto Nisman, an Argentine prosecutor known for doggedly probing a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing, and investigative journalist Jorge Lanata in Argentina last year. Further work revealed a pattern of systematic electronic spying dating back to 2007.

Hacked has more,

A Sophisticated Hacker Operation
John Scott-Railton, the lead Citizen Lab researcher at the University of Toronto’s Munk School for Global Affairs, said the operation is highly targeted. He said Packrat carefully chooses and relentlessly pursues its targets.hacker

The hackers used the same Internet domains for years even though there was some exposure in doing this, a technical convenience. Cybercriminals normally do not do this for fear of being caught by law enforcement.

The researchers found 35 types of booby-trapped files and used domains hosted by companies in the U.S., Uruguay, Sweden, Spain, France, Brazil and Argentina.

About two dozen “seeding” sites resided on servers owned by GoDaddy.com LLC, a U.S.-based web hosting company, for much of the past two years. GoDaddy-hosted domain names included login-office365.com, mgoogle.us, update-outlook.com and soporte-yahoo.com.

Researchers alerted most of the providers Friday and asked that they shutter Packrat’s known infrastructure. Nick Fuller, a GoDaddy spokesperson, said GoDaddy acts immediately after identifying a problem website.

Packrat Targeted Nisman
The researchers started the investigation after determining that Packrat had targeted Nisman, who died mysteriously of a gunshot wound in January while attempting to bring charges against Argentina’s president.

Researchers said Packrat sent Jorge Lanata, an Argentine journalist, the same virus Nisman received a month prior to his death.

The virus was designed to communicate with the same Internet domains used to spy on Ecuadorean opposition figures who found Packrat malware in their emails using search scripts the researchers wrote.

Not that it’ll make any difference on the Nisman murder investigation – that’s not going anywhere.

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Argentina: Post-peronist?

Uki Goñi, author of the must-read The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina asks, A Post-Peronist President at Last?

In the often confusing world of Argentine politics, where the Peronist movement still dominates, commanding a quasi-religious fervor — even as it splinters and reassembles — Mr. Macri’s camp has every reason to feel victorious after running a close second. Mr. Scioli has even had to step forward to deny that, as happened in 2003, the first-round winner would drop out rather than contest the runoff, which will be held on Nov. 22. Opinion polling shows Mr. Scioli losing ground to Mr. Macri.

So there is the real prospect, for the first time since Argentina’s return to democracy 32 years ago, that we may have a president who is neither from the Peronist Party, which has held the office for 25 of those 32 years, nor from its erstwhile rival, the nearly defunct Radical Civic Union, which won the presidency twice. Mr. Macri set up his Republican Proposal party (PRO) only 10 years ago, on the strength of his personal fortune and his presidency of Boca Juniors, one of the most popular soccer clubs in Argentina.

Read the full article.

In Spanish, Lanata’s show, where he starts by pointing out that the currency was devalued by 236% in 12 years,

The runoff is scheduled for next Sunday. CORRECTION: for Sunday, November 22.

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