LatinNews Daily Report - 24 May 2013

POLITICS | Attorney general orders investigation into Mario-gate. On 23 May Venezuela’s attorney general, Luisa Ortega, announced an investigation into the allegations made on an opposition-leaked audio recording purported to be a conversation between the high profile local Chavista journalist, Mario Silva, and a Cuban intelligence official. The recording includes allegations of financial corruption such as the misappropriation of public funds and foreign currency, influence trafficking and other criminal activities including potentially treasonable acts like conspiring against the State. Silva himself, who has gone to Cuba citing medical reasons, may also be the subject of the investigation for passing information to foreign government agents. Silva, along with President Nicolás Maduro and the head of the national assembly, Diosdado Cabello, who is the subject of many of the accusations on the tape, have all denied the tape’s authenticity, dismissing it as ‘a montage’. The national assembly, controlled by the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), already rejected an opposition request for an official investigation. The attorney general’s decision appears to lend credence to opposition claims that the tape is genuine. It is worth noting, however, that Ortega is considered pro-government and as such there will be some suspicion that the investigation will lead nowhere. On the other hand, it could give President Maduro legal cover to move on some of his alleged internal rivals.

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