Italian politics is shaken by an alleged funding scandal. The Spanish newspaper “ABC” reported on Monday, citing a document from the Venezuelan military intelligence, the socialist Regime in Caracas, had in July 2010, the left-wing populist Five-star movement of 3.5 million euros in cash.
Matthias Rüb
Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta, based in Rome.
F. A. Z.
The money had gone out of Caracas with the diplomatic bag of the Venezuelan Consulate in Milan. There the Consul, Gian Carlo Di Martino have handed over the money in a suitcase to Gianroberto Casaleggio, in addition to the TV comedian Beppe Grillo, one of the co-founder of the in October 2009 launched the Five-star movement. This is involved since the parliamentary election in March 2018, the government, in a coalition with the right-nationalist Lega, since September 2019 in a left Alliance with the social Democrats.
A long-time associate of Chávez as a Bearer of
In the “ABC” as a facsimile of the document published by the military intelligence of Venezuela from the 5. In July 2010, the money had been handed over to “safe and secret path” to Casaleggio, the “promoter of a left-revolutionary and anti-capitalist movement in the Republic of Italy”. The Handing over of the money had been authorized by Tareck El Aissami, at the time Minister of Interior and justice, as well as by the then foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro.
El Aissami, formerly Vice-President and since April of 2020, oil Minister of Venezuela, is accused by the American justice drug trafficking on a large scale. Maduro is since the death of revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez in March 2013, President of the South American country.
The alleged Bearer of the money, Gian Carlo Di Martino, was born 1964 as son of Italian migrants in the Venezuelan port city of Maracaibo and was there from 2000 to 2008 as mayor. In April 2010, he was sent by the then leader of the revolution Chávez as a Consul to the country of his parents. He is regarded as a long-time companion, Chávez’ and of its successor, Maduro.
At the end of the as according to the “ABC” as a secret classified document, it means that the employees of the diplomatic missions of Venezuela in Italy have been instructed to keep the cash transfer, or silence, in order to avoid “diplomatic problems between the two States”.
party chief speaks of “the ridiculous Fake News”
Consul Di Martino rejected the report in respect of the Italian media as “completely false” and said it was a conspiracy of the “Venezuelan ultra-right, together with the Italian UItrarechten”. “ABC” will be known funded dimensions of the Venezuelan Right. The document was a forgery.
