Posted on 06/23/2002 4:09:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez denied having received illegal campaign funding from a Spanish bank during his 1998 bid for the presidency.
"I have absolutely nothing to fear," Chavez told a group of foreign correspondents in Miraflores Presidential Palace late Friday.
The case in Venezuela was prompted by an investigation launched by Spain's central bank, which discovered that the Spanish bank BBVA deposited secret funds outside the country for 13 years.
Venezuela's Attorney General's Office and National Electoral Council both opened investigations this week into allegations that Chavez, or members of his ruling party, accepted illegal campaign donations from BBVA.
Venezuelan law requires full disclosure of electoral campaign donations and strictly prohibit any donations from foreign business interests.
A probe by Spain's top investigative magistrate into secret offshore accounts once held by BBVA revealed that the bank sent money in 1988 and 1999 to a Dutch Antilles offshore account in the name of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party.
The accounts held some dlrs 200 million when they were closed in 2000.
According to Spanish authorities, Chavez's party received a dlrs 500,000 donation from BBVA in November 1998 for the presidential campaign that same year.
The Fifth Republic Movement allegedly received another dlrs 1 million for the 1999 campaign for a constituent assembly, a popularly elected body stacked with Chavez allies.
Former BBVA directors admitted this week in Madrid that they authorized the dlrs 1.5 million donations to the 1998 and 1999 campaigns.
Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper who won a landslide victory in 1998 on an anti-corruption, anti-poverty platform, said he expects Venezuelan authorities to cooperate in the investigation.
"Information like this must be investigated," said Chavez. "I'm sure they've gotten to the bottom of this in Spain, and I'm sure the institutions here will collaborate so this issue is clarified."
Caracas' El Universal daily reported this week that Chavez and former Interior Minister Luis Miquilena were registered in 1998 as the only administrators of the party's campaign funding. BBVA subsidiary Banco Provincial is one of Venezuela's three largest banks.
Tulio Alvarez, one of this South American nation's leading private attorneys, plans to file criminal charges against Chavez for his alleged involvement in the BBVA case.
Venezuelan courts allow citizens to file criminal accusations, but prosecution can be launched only after the courts approve the charges.
Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled this week in favor of a petition introduced by Alvarez that strips the president of immunity from trial.
The ruling gives allows government opponents to move forward with the BBVA-related charges and 14 other criminal corruption complaints filed against Chavez.
Chavez, looking calm and collected, told foreign correspondents it isn't the first time his political adversaries have accused him of graft, and he refuted allegations of his involvement in the BBVA scandal.
"First they said I had an account with millions (of dollars) in one of those tax havens ... then they said I was one of the richest men in Latin America," said Chavez. "I haven't received one dollar."
According to Spanish authorities, Chavez's party received a dlrs 500,000 donation from BBVA in November 1998 for the presidential campaign that same year. The Fifth Republic Movement allegedly received another dlrs 1 million for the 1999 campaign for a constituent assembly, a popularly elected body stacked with Chavez allies.***
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