Well, well. What have we here? A Venezuelan priest — and member of the right-wing opposition — receiving a cheque via Wells Fargo, from Canada of all places? Yup. And he was exposed by someone on the same political side as he, no less:
The opposition priest from Zulia, José Palmar, known for harshly criticizing corruption and attacking the revolutionary government, is now in the eye of the hurricane for appearing in the Panama Papers leaks, where it was found that he holds a bank account with more than $18 million US.
The denunciation comes from right-wing journalist Rafael Poleo, in his column “Short and Deep”, wherein he shows proofs of illicit acts on the part of the parish priest of the Guadalupe Church in Sierra Maestra, San Francisco municipality. It appears that he used a charitable association, called “Children of Zulia”, opened in 2008.
“It doesn’t surprise me that functionaries of the Venezuelan government are involved in the corruption mentioned in the documents of the Panama Papers. What does surprise me is that in those documents, there are known opposition members, who criticized the government a great deal, among them Father José Palmar,” Poleo comments.
However, in spite of the investigation under way against him, the fractious priest has not ceased to attack the government; today, on his Twitter account, @PadreJosePalmar, he wrote: “All the ‘plugged-in’ Chavistas who appear in the Panama Papers are crooks who take advantage of the national treasury to get rich.”
Translation mine. Link added.
You know that old saying about those who live in glass houses, and throwing stones, right? Well, it also applies to people living in “humble parish houses” and under a vow of poverty:
“Those who accuse me of having ties to the Panama Papers, I tell them: I live in a humble parish house built by Jesuits.”
Of course, it’s quite possible to live in such a house, and yet still have a foreign bank account; no rules against that except said vow of poverty!
And a few tweets later, he goes on in, very unpriestly language:
“I don’t know any charitable organization called Children of Zulia, but I know one in Miraflores Palace called SONS OF BITCHES.”
Tsk, tsk. Kiss your statues of the Virgin with that mouth, Padre?
As you can see, the padre’s tweeter is a hoot; he’s spinning defensively and presenting heavily redacted messages, ostensibly from the Canadian and US embassies, as proof that he’s been…framed?
And retweets of Rafael Poleo claiming that he, too, was somehow…set up?
¿Qué h’éso?
Of course, like all members of the Venezuelan opposition, these two are complete sinvergüenzas — shameless people, both chronic and pathological liars, who think nothing of libelling their own government on the regular (and on the tweeter). They claim there’s no freedom of expression in Venezuela, while indulging in it routinely to a degree that would never be tolerated by the government of Canada OR that of the US. If they said such awful things about PM Trudeau or President Obama, they’d be arrested.
But it really is funny to watch them spin, isn’t it?
