The Missing Link of Business between Buenos Aires and Caracas

José María, "chubby, short and low profile," as described by another Argentine journalist, in 2006 began to be active in Commitment K, a group to support the reelection of Néstor Kirchner. But the melody changed for him before, when Julio De Vido called him to be his personal advisor after he was appointed as Minister of Planning in 2003. Then, they would start their trips to Venezuela.

Olazagasti was promoted from a minor position, as advisor, secretary, to Ministry Ceremonial Director. His position was not assigned in the Official Gazette. Hence, there is no obligation to declare his personal assets and earnings to the Anticorruption Bureau (thus, he could be released now from any conviction from justice). His position corresponds to a category C of the Administrative Profession System, based on the labor scale of Argentina, for which he should charge between 3,000 and 4,000 (198-264 US dollars). However, the man from Villa Lugano seems to have managed to develop and make ends meet. In a 2010 report from La Nación newspaper says that at that time, he lived in Villa Nueva del Tigre country (closed neighborhood), "it is not the most exclusive, but it is a high cost for a category C employer", highlights the press release. It also refers to the monthly fee of a school in the private neighborhood of Nordelta "the monthly fee of which is no less than 2500 pesos (or around 165 dollars)." These are places in the delta of the Paraná River that since its flows into Río de la Plata, near Buenos Aires, it has become a suburb of well-to-do classes in the Argentine capital.

"He is discreet, but eats at fine places, drives nice cars, he is guarded. He is like a secretary, but more than a secretary. He is someone next to a minister, but with much power," says Rodrigo Alegre, a journalist of Channel 13 in Buenos Aires.

How could he do it from a position as secretary? "He had links with the public work. He went from being a secretary to having a lot of power, influencing politics and getting involved in business. He was in charge of the papers, De Vido’s agenda, the meeting with businessmen," says Alegre. He became the minister's main operator and, with the international trips, he began negotiating as a Secretary of State and closing agreements with Venezuela, Ecuador or Algeria. Although, all the consulted sources agree, he did not sign anything, he did not declare anything, so his track can only be guessed from the visits he made, for example, to the Venezuelan capital.

After Antonini Wilson's valijagate or suitcase scandal, Claudio Uberti, director of the Órgano de Control de Concesiones Viales (OCCOVI), the federal agency that regulates highway concessions, and coordinator of the Argentina-Venezuela agreement, the so-called Financial Series II Trust or, as it is known in Argentina, PDVSA II, was remove from his position in December 2007. At that time, the already empowered Olazagasti, takes more power and is in charge of business abroad.

"All the Argentine businessmen knew that by talking and meeting with him, they did it directly with De Vido. Being someone with little training, without a degree, and who did not know what a liter of gas was, he ended up with the most important businessmen in the Argentine energy sector. He had massive power and his wealth significantly grew," says Olivera.

It is estimated that since the fall of Uberti, Olazagasti made 42 trips abroad. Through documents from sources of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Argentina, to which Armando Info had access, at least 15 trips of the Ceremonial Director to Venezuela could be verified.

Olazagasti only traveled by order of Julio De Vido, says Rodrigo Alegre. The first flight that has been recorded was on April 5, 2004, a trip he made with the minister and Uberti. He would travel again with the same company on May 28, coinciding with the signing of the trust. That year, he made at least another trip from June 3-6, along with Uberti and Victoria Bereziuk, who was also a passenger of the private flight of Antonini Wilson. They were given 89, 118, and 110 dollars as travel allowance, respectively, as well as 46 dollars for health insurance.

On November 22, 2005, the Official Gazette announced with retroactive effect the official trip of the trio De Vido-Olazagasti-Uberti, from November 20 to 22, this time to Puerto Ordaz, state of Bolivar, the capital of heavy industry in Venezuela, a trip that was also attended by President Kirchner, and where they met with Hugo Chávez. On that occasion, one of the visits made by the presidents included the hydroelectric dam of Macagua, on the Caroní River in the middle of the city, "a sign that in that summit the energetic cooperation was discussed or was to be discussed," BBC World said.

With similar delay, another announcement was made in the Official Gazette of July 7, 2006, for a trip of the same triplet, which was in Caracas from July 3 to 5. The sixth trip on record was made on March 5-8, 2008, with Cristina Fernández as president, who was in the delegation along with De Vido, her right hand, and presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccinarro, bound for Caracas with stops in the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the XX Summit of the Rio Group. Again, the announcement was made in the Official Gazette two days after starting the trip.

The peculiarity of the following trips, in addition to knowing that José María Olazagasti traveled to Caracas, is that either he shared flight or coincided in the capital with Juan José Levy, the businessman who faces several criminal cases for alleged money laundering and smuggling, and who appeared as the owner of offshore companies in the investigation of the so-called Panama Papers. In 2009, they were both in Caracas on August 10-12. The following year, on April 16, they shared the flight of Aerolineas Argentinas from Buenos Aires to Caracas. Levy participated in the sale of medicines to Venezuela, as well as the digital television system that the Government of Nicolás Maduro eventually adopted.

Levy denies to the Justice knowing the secretary, but according to Olivera, they do know each other, "their children are school mates at a Northland school, a district of Buenos Aires. And precisely those flights and that meeting are the few things that are known about Olazagasti that are in the hands of Justice."

In 2012, they coincide again, first between March 20 and 23 and then in September. It is on this date that it seems that a third person joined the dance, because he shared a round trip Buenos Aires-Caracas from the 14^th to 19^th, with Olazagasti and one more passenger, Minister De Vido, as evidenced in the Customs records. The same queer tango trio, and apparently the last, is repeated on March 19, 2013. Olazagasti and Levy will be back in Caracas in March and April 2013 and in May 2014.

Not even from the Venezuelan Argentine Chamber of Commerce (Cavenarg), based in Caracas, they say they know about the business. Benjamin Tripier, president of Cavenarg, says that he never saw Olazagasti, "he was not even close to the Chamber. I know him from the press. There was no deal with the Chamber. We were in another dimension. We knew what was happening, the Government contracts, but that was it. We do not know if any registered company had to do with that. They (the Government) had no interest in us neither we in them. They had their own circuit." As to the trust, Tripier assures that "it was something very selective, which not everyone had access to. I do not know if there was any genuine business there and I think that the one who did those things did not say much, and one understands, because it was not very close to what transparent business could be." And he assures that what he says now is the same he knew back then, "we never had to participate in a meeting where De Vido or Olazagasti were present."

In a contact by email with Eduardo Alberto Sadous, who was ambassador from 2002 to 2005, he refused to have an interview about Olazagasti. "Unfortunately, I cannot help you, because during my administration, Olazagasti was nothing more than the secretary of Julio De Vido, the minister. After Uberti and the Antonini Wilson episode, he became a 'parallel ambassador', but I had already left my position."

The statements of Sadous about the secretary and the movements in the embassy are available in the documents of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Argentina, which we have access to for this press release. From his testimony it is clear that "the embassy was informed of the arrival and departure of the officials only. It did not participate in most of the meetings held with the different Venezuelan government agencies, especially with the Ministry of Energy and PDVSA, the head of which was Rafael Ramírez." Not even Ambassador Sadous was in charge of receiving them, but Álvarez Tufillo, former economic and commercial advisor of the embassy in Venezuela.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Olazagasti. I'm making a profile about you and I'd like to interview you. I hope I can count on your assistance. Regards." An hour later, the two whatsapp tick marks change to blue. "Hi, 2 or 3 times I was asked about that person. This is not his telephone number." After confirming with several people, it is corroborated that the number belongs to José María Olazagasti. We insisted on the identity of the person behind the phone screen, the blue tick remain, but there is no answer until after a while. The person calls.

"I'm not that man. I'm Rodrigo Vaquerizo, music producer. I'm sure this is some friends who are playing a joke on me. I do not know who you're talking e about." The name is sought but there is no trace of someone in the world of music with that name in Argentina. It is corroborated again with several Argentine journalists that the number belongs to Olazagasti. "Maybe the profile picture has been changed - a very low resolution photo of an empty stage, half mounted and with the lights on - but that is definitively his number," they confirm on the other side of the phone. We insisted again on the identity. A new call.

• I am a musician, is this man (Olazagasti) an artist?
• No.
• He is not in my business?
• No.
• Google me as I googled you. Do journalists call me and it's not because of artistic matters? I want you to call me for my music. It is not a joke. Where are you calling from?
• From Venezuela.
• Things are difficult there...
• But it seems that not for business.
• I do not know. We never went to play in Venezuela. Google “Otros Aires” (Other Airs) and when you come to Argentina and want to hear electronic tango, I'll take you out to dance. You never know how friendly relationships begin.

Otros Aires was born in 2003 in Barcelona (Spain), designed by Argentine musician Miguel Di Genova. While the forerunners of the Neotango genre were Malevo, followed by Gotan Project - then Bajofondo - the Di Genova band quickly achieved worldwide fame. But there is no trace of Rodrigo Vaquerizo or his relationship with electronic tango. We called again to the telephone number and it was disconnected.

This real or fictitious alter ego has at least something in common with De Vido's right hand, production and music. Marmot Producciones SRL, registered in March 2013, is a company responsible for the production of theatrical and musical shows in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. It is also responsible for the provision of services and organization of social, cultural, sporting, business events, and the like. Who is its manager? José María Olazagasti.

If, when he was a key player in the business of the Kirchner government, he was a man of whom little or nothing was known, when the tango-salsa mashup began to play the end, it was almost impossible to trace him. The discretion of Olazagasti reaches such a level that it later went to enlarge the ranks of the Federal Intelligence Agency, according to a publication of Noticias magazine, where he appears together with other 137 names. His spy alias matched his initials: José Oslo. A source tells that he was linked in the federal courts to clean up the cases against Daniel Scioli, governor in the province of Buenos Aires and then candidate in the last presidential elections.

Neither Cheppi nor Sadous talk about him, because "they cannot. They do not give interviews. They did not meet him". Either those who should know him well. This is the case of Alberto Fernández, in President of the Cabinet of Argentina from 2003 to 2008. He does not have much idea on the subject, nor on Olazagasti, because he never worked with him. "In the Government structure, he was a marginal character. He was De Vido's secretary only. He had no other function. If he did other things, they were not public." Even in spite of the relevance that the Ceremonial Director seems to have, he points out, "It strikes me that they have noticed him."

Why do they deny knowing him if he was responsible for coordinating one of the biggest businesses of the government of Néstor and Cristina? Because a sector of Kirchnerism considers him a traitor. José López, who was secretary of Public Works, was arrested after a neighbor of the monastery Nuestra Señora de Fátima in Buenos Aires reported that someone was throwing bags full of money from a car inside the convent. There are those who suspect that it was not a neighbor, but Olazagasti, but it is not proved.

And, now ... "He is missing. He is likely to be in Argentina," agree all the sources consulted, who also agree that as he lost political power, his link with businessmen vanished.