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Protectionists in Congress think there's no cost to shooting down pending free trade deals in the pipeline with Peru, Panama and Colombia. Don't tell that to Latin Americans desperately trying to keep Venezuelan bad boy Hugo Chavez out of their countries.
For them, a U.S.-led trading bloc is an antidote to Chavez expansionism.

Details have emerged in the past month about a suitcase containing $790,000 in cash that was nabbed by Argentine customs officials at an airport in Buenos Aires. Carrying the bag was Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a Venezuelan-American "businessman" who was traveling from Caracas with an official delegation of Argentine government officials and bigwigs from the Venezuelan oil company PdVSA. Much about the incident is shrouded in mystery, but Mr. Chavez is known for involving himself in his neighbors' elections and next month will see the election of a new Argentine president to succeed Nestor Kirchner, who happens to be a Chavez favorite. One of the candidates is Sen. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the current president's wife.

One thing seems certain: Mr. Antonini did not expect to be searched. According to press reports, PdVSA planes entering Argentina are granted special military clearance that avoids customs. Unfortunately for Mr. Antonini, the plane somehow wound up at the wrong terminal. The plot further thickened as an unusual number of customs inspectors were apparently dispatched to search the passengers, helping to insure the cash was discovered. That raised speculation that someone inside the government had tipped off customs officials -- suggesting individuals in the circle of President Kirchner wanted the perpetrators exposed.

The Argentine daily La Nacíon has reported that Mr. Antonini made 12 visits to Buenos Aires in the past year. Another individual on the plane, Claudio Uberti, who was Argentina's director of highway concessions until he was fired over the Antonini scandal, is even better traveled. La Nacíon says he flew out of the country 27 times last year, and six of those trips were to Venezuela. In fact, several more of his trips also seem to have taken him to Venezuela, albeit by way of Bolivia.

Mr. Chavez, who endorsed Mrs. Kirchner for election during a recent visit to Buenos Aires, naturally has claimed the money was planted as a U.S. plot to discredit the burgeoning alliance between Venezuela and Argentina. Understanding just how deep the ties go between the cash-rich Venezuelan government and Mr. and Mrs. Kirchner remains a work in progress for Argentine democrats. Washington can ill afford to look the other way.

-- Mary Anastasia O'Grady