According to the Spanish newspaper Abc Nicolás Maduro he would have financed the Cinquestelle Movement in 2010. This is what emerges from the contents of a classified document of Venezuelan intelligence. The current president of Venezuela, then Chavez's foreign minister, would have sent a briefcase with 3,5 million euros to the Venezuelan consulate in Milan addressed to Gianroberto Casaleggio to secretly finance the movement founded in 2009 by Beppe Grillo. The money would have been sent via a diplomatic bill, therefore exempt from customs controls.
Davide Casaleggio replied immediately on the Blog of the Stars: "The 5-star MoVement has always been financed transparently and we are the only ones to have made all budgets public, even in detail, even before the law required it. The 5 Star MoVement has never received hidden funding. The current Venezuelan government has denied fake news. My father never went to Venezuela. The 5 Star MoVement never received public funding". Casaleggio junior continues: "If until he was alive he had the opportunity to defend himself, now that he is gone I will not allow his name to be tarnished in any way.".
The Spanish newspaper puts the Venezuelan consul in Milan, Gian Carlo di Martino, at the center of the story. He acted as intermediary for the final transaction in Casaleggio, which took place in cash. The document indicates Casaleggio as "promoter of a revolutionary and anti-capitalist left movement in the Italian Republic".
The 3,5 million euros, sent with the briefcase with diplomatic seals also created an internal problem in Venezuelan diplomacy, reveals the Spanish newspaper, because it was found by the military attaché who had informed Carvajal. The latter would have reassured him with a dispatch in which he stated: "Verbal instructions were given to our official in Italy not to continue reporting on the issue, which could become a diplomatic problem”Between Italy and Venezuela. Carvajal has been a fugitive since last November after the approval of his extradition to the United States, where he is accused of drug trafficking and the sale of weapons to Colombian Farc guerrillas. Spain, where he had taken refuge - highlights the newspaper - had not been able to prevent his escape. The sum destined for the Cinquestelle Movement would have been drawn from reserved funds administered by the then Minister of the Interior, Tareck el Aissami, who was, and is, considered a trusted man by Nicolas Maduro. Aissami has been subjected to sanctions by the US authorities for crimes related to drug trafficking and money laundering. The same authorities who a few months later adopted economic sanctions against Maduro accusing him, immediately after the elections that the US considers illegitimate, "a dictator who ignores the will of the people".
Ansa reports that Abc claims to have contacted those directly interested in the affair, including the current leader of M5E, Vito Crimi, his former political leader, Luigi Di Maio, the Venezuelan consul in Milan, Gian Carlo di Martino and Grillo himself, but that "none of them answered the questions ”.
"That of Venezuela's alleged funding of the 5-Star Moviemento is simply ridiculous and imaginative fake news. There is nothing else to say on the issue, except from the distant 2010 I remember when I was a candidate for president at the regional in Lombardy. Even then, as in the following years, what we carried out was an electoral campaign made with very few resources and means, the result of micro donations from Italian citizens. For the rest, we will consider whether to take legal action. We certainly don't let ourselves be distracted by certain shots or intimidated". This was stated in a note by the political leader of the 5 Star Movement Vito Crimi.
"This is false and absurd information, we will take legal action". With these words, the Venezuelan embassy in Rome, contacted by ANSA, denies the alleged funding for the 5 Star Movement of which the Spanish newspaper Abc speaks today. The embassy source reports among other things that in 2010 the M5s was just born and was therefore "completely unknown in Venezuela " and that at the time the Venezuelan consul in Milan - from which, according to the ABC reconstruction, 3,5 million would have passed - had just arrived at the headquarters.
“Thanks to this secret document published by the Spanish newspaper ABC we understand the attitude of the Italian government on Venezuela and Maduro. I will present an urgent question to Borrell to find out who in Europe and for how long has received illicit funding from the Venezuelan regime ”. He writes it on Twitter Antonio Tajani, Forza Italia MEP on the revelations of the Spanish daily ABC according to which Nicolás Maduro would have financed the Cinquestelle Movement in 2010. The Spanish newspaper cites a classified document of Venezuelan intelligence, of which it publishes a photo.