Politics Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said again that an ongoing trial in Miami in connection with a suitcase stuffed with USD 800,000 that was sent from Caracas to Buenos Aires is a "trash operation."

The head of state explained that he did not talk about it with his Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during a recent summit in Chile.

"The suitcase issue is not a big issue for us. It forms part, as we have said, of a trash operation" undertaken by the US government, Chávez told reporters.

"I wonder why the US government does not extradite the criminal; that Venezuelan-US businessman protected there and charged in Argentina with money laundering," Chávez commented in reference to Guido Antonini Wilson, one of the leading characters in the Miami´s lawsuit.

On August 4th, 2007, in Buenos Aires, Antonini was caught in possession of a suitcase containing USD 800,000 in cash. According to the evidence produced at the courthouse, the money coming from state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela was set to finance Kirchner's presidential campaign, AFP quoted.