Talk:Thor Halvorssen (businessman)

Some article changes
I did substantial cleanup of this new article, including:
 * Corrected name to Halvorssen Hellum (Venezuelan names aren't hyphenated and the HRF source gives Halvorssen Hellum's name correctly without a hyphen).
 * Removed the source on the Yallop book, as it doesn't substantiate that Yallop wrote about the Halvorssen case. I've found no source for that info.  Linking to a website about the book isn't the same as citing that the book was about the Halvorssen case.
 * Removed some of the unencyclopedic tone.
 * Corrected the ref formatting, but did not check the new refs.

I'm concerned about the reliability of the Ashenoff source. I'm particularly concerned that better sources should be provided for the whole Pablo Escobar thing, since linking to a bail bond agency for that kind of info might run afoul of BLP.

It would be good to expand the professional bio section to discuss more of his tenture at CANTV.

Hopefully someone who knows the Castro Llanes case well can find better sources and verify the info. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 05:41, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

GQ article and Yallop book
I've just returned from my library. Sugargrrl, I realize that learning all of Wiki policies is a steep learning curve, but when it comes to biographies of living persons, we must get it right. We cannot add information to biographies that is not scrupulously sourced to reliable sources. It is very important that you understand this before you continue adding info to the articles. I know it's complicated; don't worry, you'll get there. If you're unsure, you can post something to the talk page where others can review it first.

The research librarian searched on the title ("Presumed Guilty"), the author (Isabel Hutton) and within the July 1994 issue of Gentleman's Quarterly and found no record of the article cited. Thus, WP:BLP obligates me to immediately delete that information, which I will do next. If you can give me a better indication of where you got that info, we can always retrieve deleted text from article history and easily reinstate it, so pls don't worry that your work will be lost. No, e-mailing the info to me will not help; any Wiki reader needs to be able to locate the information; if I can't find it, neither can the average reader.

I've also been trying to verify your information about Unholy Alliance. According to the research librarian, the book was from a very obscure publisher (one she had never heard of), and has been out of print since about 2000. That may good enough for Hollywood, but it may not be good enough for sourcing information about living persons on Wikipedia. There are a number of us here who can work with you to build an article to Wikipedia standards and policies, but it may be helpful to slow down, read and understand the policies here, and then double and triple check your sources, making sure that any text you enter is true to the source. We're here to help, but the kind of information you're adding is very sensitive, and we must get it right. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 21:11, 21 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Sandy, the GQ article is July 1994, Issue 61, British GQ, Geena Davis on the cover: "Curtain Up on Geena Davis" and the article on Halvorssen Hellum is the main feature and begins on Page 80 and goes until page 86.70.23.3.191 21:10, 21 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Is there a difference between the British GQ and the USA GQ? My library is closed now.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:12, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Sandy, British GQ and American GQ and Japanese GQ, and italian GQ are different editions of the same mag (Just like French Vogue, American Vogue, Japanese Vogue). The original GQ is the British version. it is published by conde nast. I have the article here. As a PDF. Where do i email it. if you delete the information putting it back again is going to be a pain. Can I send it to someone to post it? The Yallop/halvorssen connection is well established by both Halvorssen and Yallop. Google isn't the only gospel. We have nexis in this office and we have the originals. what do I do. i don't want my boss to be asking me how these articles can see-saw this much.70.23.3.191 21:17, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Check this out, it can be found on a simple nexislexis search:

Latin America Weekly Report

November 25, 1993

Amnesty criticises police and courts; TREATMENT OF HALVORSSEN RAISES CONCERN FOR HIS SAFETY

SECTION: VENEZUELA; Human Rights; WR-93-46; Pg. 543

LENGTH: 642 words

On the eve of presidential elections, Venezuela has become a topsy-turvy land where the chief anti-drug investigator is in prison, the biggest drug trafficker has been released, possibly with the connivance of the President's son, and the police and judicial authorities stand accused of serious human rights violations. Damning reports. New reports by Amnesty International and Americas Watch point to the routine ill-treatment of suspects by the police, the failure of the judicial system to investigate alleged abuses and the venality of the courts. The case of Thor Halvorssen (see Page 538), not mentioned in the reports, could serve as an illustration of some of their most serious allegations.

Halvorssen, former chairman of the telephone company, CANTV, and appointed Special Commissioner for International Narcotics Affairs in 1989, is in prison charged with master-minding the rash of bombings in Caracas earlier this year. According to the police, the aim was to create a climate of uncertainty and enable the conspirators to make a killing on the stock and bond markets. Supporters of Halvorssen, including the leading columnist Andres Galdo, believe he is himself the victim of a conspiracy to block his investigations into the growing power of drug traffickers in Venezuelan political and economic life. The British author David Yallop believes Halvorssen was betrayed by former President Carlos Andres Perez (who appointed him) because he was getting too close to Perez's own alleged corrupt activities. After stating as much in Caracas, Yallop was arrested at gunpoint by judicial police (PTJ) and later deported. Perez has denied that he ever appointed Halvorssen to the anti-drug post, which is demonstrably untrue.

Irrespective of the merits or otherwise of the case against Halvorssen, hiss treatment gives cause for concern, and has led to an international campaign (including Amnesty) on his behalf. After his arrest by the PTJ on 8 October he was harshly treated and held in the Reten de Catia maximum-security prison in Caracas - criticised by Amnesty as the worst example of overcrowding, brutality and degrading conditions. Beaten in prison. There he was kept in a cell with 27 drug-traffickers, the very people Halvorssen had been working against. Not surprisingly, he was badly beaten. He was eventually transferred to another prison after his health collapsed - he is 50 - but it was several more days before he was allowed to see a doctor.

Halvorssen was arrested on the strength of information from Ramiro Helmeyer, the alleged organiser of the bombing campaign. But he subsequently told the press he had been tortured by the police to oblige him to incriminate Halvorssen.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the case is the role of the justice minister, Fermin Marmol Leon, who announced the guilt of Halvorssen immediately after his arrest, and said he could not guarantee his safety in detention. This, as commentators such as Amadis (Luis Teofillo Nunez) in El Universal point out, is contrary to the separation of powers, prejudging a case that has not even been formulated, much less heard by a court.

This has led observers to comment that a 'marble hand' (mano de marmol) is behind the conspiracy against Halvorssen - an allusion to a remark from the attorney-general, Ramon Escovar Salom, that a 'hairy hand' (mano peluda) was manipulating events behind the scenes.

Marmol also had an unexplained role in the precipitate release of Larry Tovar (see Page 519), the convicted drug trafficker detained in 1989 and pardoned by President Ramon J Velasquez in circumstances still being investigated by a judge. Marmol allegedly failed to follow correct procedures for such cases, ordering Tovar's immediate release without signing the appropriate documents.

SUBJECT: SUBSTANCE ABUSE (90%); INVESTIGATIONS (90%); CONSPIRACY (90%); ARRESTS (89%); CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS (89%); CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES CRIME (89%); PRISONS (89%); ELECTIONS (89%); JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS (78%); FALSE IMPRISONMENT (78%); HUMAN RIGHTS (77%); HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (77%); TORTURE (77%); BONDS (71%); TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES (69%);

TICKER: VNT (NYSE) (56%);

Hope it helps70.23.3.191 21:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Sugargrrl, your boss is going to have to understand that entries in Wikipedia must conform to Wiki policies, particularly on biographies of living persons. I know that "putting [deleted info] back again is going to be a pain", but I'm devoting a very nice Saturday afternoon to helping you, and it's also taking a lot of my time, OK ?   You just added info sourced to a blog, and blogs are not reliable sources.  Please, please slow down and take some time to review Wiki policies.  And, believe me, you don't need to tell me stories about the banking scandal in Venezuela, or what happened to Halvorssen at the hands of Castro Llanes, or what happens to good honest decent people in Venezuela today.  I can assure you that I have a very personal and profound understanding of the issues and the personalities here.  What I know or what you know is not important; entries to Wiki biographies must be scrupulously sourced.  You can go to my userpage and click on the link on the left hand side to e-mail me the PDF of the British GQ.  And don't panic if someone deletes one of your entries; they can easily be retrieved from history.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:26, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, if your boss is giving you a hard time about the article "see-sawing", please have him or her look at WP:NOT, and point out the disclaimer at the bottom of every editing page here: "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by others, do not submit it."  Anyone can edit Wikipedia, and the info will change, and it can't be "spun" to promote a movie.  Like you, I want the true story told, but it must be correctly sourced, and JRSP will be following Wiki policies if he deletes text from a bio that is not scrupulously sourced.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:37, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I am so way in over my head here. This is going to be impossible, isn't it? It is so frustrating because I have everything here. As for Yallop--He sold 7 million copies of just one of his books! I hardly think he is obscure. Oh, we also have the Pablo Escobar letters written about Castro Llanes. Lastly, the guy who edits the mafia pages also wants sources for the Cuntreras-Caruana stuff. It's in GQ. What do we do? The GQ author is a very very well known investigator and she ripped the curtain off the Argentinian massacres carried out by VaLera and Pinochet. She is amazing (I've talked with her). we aren't trying to promote a movie, we are trying to show the truth about how the subject of our movie was the victim of a conspiracy that included former presidents, bankers, money launderers, and even Pablo Escobar (who died, coincidentally, just days before Halvorssen Hellum was freed)70.23.3.191 21:44, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No, it's quite doable, because I will help you. E-mail me the GQ article.  Letters written by Escobar aren't necessarily usable here unless they are published by a reliable source. Maybe a tour through WP:ATT will help get you up to speed.  Don't worry about the Cuntreras-Caruana article; you're trying to work in too many places at once.  If you get it right here, they'll grab the references from here.  Concentrate on getting one article right, and we can build from there.  I, too, want the truth told, but it has to be told right, or it will be deleted.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:48, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

You are an angel. thank you for being so patient. I was on here last night way too late and I feel like I ran a marathon this morning. this is hard. ok, so i emailed you but there was no place to attach on here.70.23.3.191 21:53, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

everytime i log in i get kicked off... grrrrrAS 21:54, 21 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Don't worry; soon you'll be a Wiki expert :-) I'll go check my e-mail now.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:55, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Yallop
Halvorssen says Yallop is "an old friend". . I think his book cannot be considered a neutral source. I also found that Yallop was kicked out of Venezuela for "intervening in internal affairs" JRSP 22:28, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I've just gotten all the documents from Sugargrrrl and will need quite some time to read through them -- they all look to be reliable, but I need time to read. I, too, am wary of Yallop. Back in an hour or two.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 22:47, 21 July 2007 (UTC)  (PS, well of course he was kicked out.  That's what happens when you blow the whistle on corruption :-)  That's part of the story, documented in the other sources.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 22:57, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I looked at the El Nacional report on the Yallop incident; the English-language sources cover everything said there, so we'll be OK using them. Will work on that sometime today. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 18:18, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Fact checking
JRSP, did you know that Castro Llanes was a stakeholder in El Nacional during Halvorssen's arrest, which explains the pictures of Halvorssen with the falsified check in El Nacional? Still reading. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 00:40, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

To sort out: These discrepancies could be due to errors in translation; JRSP, can you find a Spanish source? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 00:58, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The Christian Science Monitor refers to Halvorssen as "Venezuela's ambassador for Narcotics Affairs".
 * The GQ article refers to him as "Special Commissioner for International Narcotic Affairs".
 * The Pennsylvania Gazette calls him the "Special Commissioner for anti-Narcotic Affairs".


 * "comisionado presidencial antidrogas" JRSP 01:07, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Possibly not the official title, just what Halvorssen remembers/says but "ambassador for Narcotics Affairs" sounds strange. JRSP 01:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I never felt ambassador was correct either; it's unfortunate that it's the only title available online. I'd rather go with the antidrogas version. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:37, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Lots to sort out here; hard to tell where to start. The Escobar connection has been questioned as possibly falsified documents, and there are layers of different theories and possibilities as to who framed him. Now that I've read the articles, are there any specific things I can type up for you, JRSP, before I start tweaking the text? I need to make lots of adjustments to stay true to the sources, although the gist is verifiable enough that there are no BLP violations. Since it's a PDF, I can't copy-paste any text here, and will have to type it all manually. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 01:37, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Putting refs here so I can use them:


 * Fonzi, Gaeton. "The Troublemaker".  The Pennsylvania Gazette (November 1994).
 * Hilton, Isabel. "Presumed Guilty".  Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ) UK:(July 1994).


 * Perhaps there is enough material in the sources for starting an Orlando Castro Llanes article and for a Ramiro Helmeyer stub. The latter was the boyfriend (now husband) of actress Maricarmen Regueiro, BTW. JRSP 01:50, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Could be—lots to sort out here for now. I think I'll start with the easier parts, laying out his professional background.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I stubbed Orlando Castro Llanes in case you want to work on it; there is enough here for Ramiro Helmeyer, if I can get to it. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 02:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

That's all for today; I'll tackle the bigger stuff tomorrow or later, as it will be harder. I tagged some things that I didn't find in the sources, so maybe Sugargrrl has sources for those. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 04:20, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

JRSP, one quick thing; can you check the accent on Dalo? The source disagrees with your accent (but these sources have those kinds of errors, so I trust what you can come up with more). Sandy Georgia (Talk) 17:04, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * http://www.tsj.gov.ve/informacion/notasprensa/2002/170702-3.htm It is pronounced Fernández DalO and "Dálo" is against accentuation rules, if that were the pronunciation it would be written without accent. JRSP 17:10, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I thought so; wanted to get the little things out of the way, since the source has it wrong. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 17:14, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Comisionado or Embajador
I got this in some blogs, Halvorssen saying "Carlos Andrés Pérez me nombró comisionado anti-drogas, dándome rango de embajador y una comisión secreta". Later "Como Embajador para cuestiones anti-drogas..." and at the end a footnote saying "El autor fue comisionado de la Presidencia de Venezuela para Asuntos Antinarcóticos con rango de Embajador". What a mess! Is the official title so important? It appears to me he was a presidential comissioner &mdash;dealing directly with the President and not with the minister of Foreign Affairs unlike other ambassadors&mdash; but he had a diplomat passport for easying contacts with foreign governments. JRSP 23:42, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe we should let this one ride for a bit, lest we tear our hair out :-) We have sources which go either way, in any case, since the Christian Science Monitor called him that.  Perhaps the article editing will get easier in a few days.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 23:52, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

All right, this makes more sense: he "had the rank" of ambassador" (reminds me that I supposedly was a Venezuelan diplomat—papers which I got in a week with a phone call when I had a problem with a third country):


 * "Thor Halvorssen". Latin America Weekly Report, Section: Venezuela; Politics; WR-93-45; Pg. 538.  November 18, 1993
 * In fact, Halvorssen was, and remains, special commissioner for the Presidency of Venezuela for international narcotic affairs, with the rank of ambassador. He was appointed to this post by President Carlos Andres Perez in 1989, shortly after Perez began his second presidential term.


 * "Harsh treatment for anti-drugs official: Questions about attitude and actions of Interior Minister".  Latin America Weekly Report.  Sectoin:  Venezuela; Section: Venezuela; Politics & Rights; RA-93-10; Pg. 2. December 16, 1993
 * Halvorssen was appointed special commissioner, with the rank of ambassador, in 1989 by former President Carlos Andres Perez.

Sandy Georgia (Talk) 04:51, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Accidentally deleted?
I think this was accidentally deleted in an edit conflict, it sounds relevant: Halvorssen believed that Pérez wasn't responding to his reports on drug trafficking and money laundering and approached his ally, Venezuelan Senator Cristobal Fernandez Dálo. In 1992, he was appointed special overseas investigator of an Anti-Money-Laundering Commission by the Venezuelan Senate. He was a liaison between law enforcement agencies around the world, working on drug and money-laundering cases. JRSP 04:25, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * it was messed up ref, that we both fixed. Ok, now I'm really done for the night.  Still lots more to tell there.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 04:39, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Christian Science Monitor source
The citation says: I'm almost certain that I added that citation to Thor Jr. long ago, and the sub-caption about "Evidence suggests ... " came from somewhere, but I don't see it there now? Weird. Any ideas ? Maybe I found the sub-caption on the tool I was using to search in the library? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 04:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Scott, David Clark. Venezuelan Anti-Drug Official Fights His Foes From a Prison Cell: Evidence suggests Thor Halvorssen was framed by Colombian drug lords and their Caracas `friends'; Christian Science Monitor. Boston, Mass.: December 20 1993.


 * Here's the diff. Perhaps it came from the Wall Street Journal article. JRSP 04:58, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll look tomorrow, too tired. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 05:02, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I found it, it was another CS Monitor article but it should be "Halvorssen says..." not "Evidence suggests...". JRSP 17:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No, I'm talking about the actual article title, see below Sandy Georgia (Talk) 17:33, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

These little things are such a time killer. Here's what I found: when I did an online search via my local library news database, the return is:


 * Venezuelan Anti-Drug Official Fights His Foes From a Prison Cell Evidence suggests Thor Halvorssen was framed by Colombian drug lords and their Caracas `friends'; [All 12/20/93 Edition] Christian Science Monitor (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: Dec 20, 1993.

So, it looks like that was the full by-line when they ran it hardprint, even though the sub-title is not in the online version. I'm not sure what to do here; I'm pretty sure Lexis-Nexis would return the same byline my local library database returns. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 17:33, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I guess they just dropped that part in the online version to avoid the long title. I think we can leave the printed version full title in the ref. JRSP 17:43, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Dates off
Something's wrong with the dates here, they don't work ... I think the charity dates are wrong, or else he was appointed to CANTV much later ? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 05:02, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * ... he headed the Dividendo Voluntario Para La Comunidad, Venezuela's largest charity, from 1976–1979. ... When Pérez was elected in 1974, Halvorssen was appointed vice president of Venezuelan telephone company CANTV, later becoming president during the late 70s and serving until Pérez completed his term.


 * He could be president of DVC and CANTV at the same time. Pérez first term ended in early 1979. JRSP 05:11, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Vice-President, acting as President in 1977. Titular president in 1978. JRSP 05:19, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Biased?
I added my bit to the article. I think it is generally a bit biased in favour of Thor Halvorssen. As noted in the Washington Post article, Halvorssen was "controversial". - Mafia Expert 15:27, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Does anyone have time to locate this article on the Washington Post website? We should try to avoid linking to copyvios, especially when there's an alternative, and this article is surely available at its original source. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 16:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree most sources are sympathetic with Halvorssen though there are already some negative opinions like Manuel Malaver, for instance. I am specially concerned about the neutrality of Ashenoff & Associates, it reads as an Orlando Castro bashing page. Of course, the article is new and there are still important actors missing like Ramiro Helmeyer and Fermín Mármol León. JRSP 15:49, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your contributions, Mafia Expert; we only got the sources yesterday, and the work is QUITE incomplete. It will take some time to incorporate all of the info in a neutral fashion, and I was planning to work further on the substantial issues today (as you can see from reviewing the talk page entries of yesterday).  The substantial body of the article hadn't even been addressed yet; yesterday I dealt with dabs, getting the structure in place, and filling in his background.  Just a note, I made corrections to your edits this morning to conform with various areas of Wikipedia's manual of style and established conventions in the article that conform with WP:DASH and WP:CITE/ES (the article uses Wiki preference for unspaced emdashes, and author first on sources), as well as WP:MOSLINK and WP:CONTEXT.  I'm not sure we should even be using Ashenoff as a source, but we hadn't gotten to that matter yet.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 16:30, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Today I had planned to fill in some gaps in yesterday's work (hopefully JRSP can help find some Spanish-language sources to cover some areas that were glossed over by the GQ article), describe the "Yuppie bombings" (the sources give enough info to cover them, and a description is needed for context), and wrap up the Yallop affair, which doesn't look to hard to complete. I was surprised to see a descriptor of "investigative journalist" added to Isabel Hilton (that's in her article, do we want to give undue weight here?), because the GQ article is not a particularly thorough investigative report; the Gazette article does a much better job of analyzing all angles of the story, and the GQ article has some surprising minor factual inaccuracies. I've cited both sources where they agree, to avoid over-reliance on one source. If you can be patient with charges of bias on a one-day-old article, we can work through these issues. GQ doesn't even mention the controversy over the Escobar letter, for example, and the author seems unaware of how easily such documents are forged in Colombia and Venezuela, while the Gazette does. I was hoping to work on that with JRSP today, as he may be able to find sources. Will type that up next. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 16:45, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * On a separate note, Mafia Expert, I saw the post you left on Sugargrrls' IP. She is brand new to Wiki, sometimes gets logged out, and isn't yet well versed in getting around Wikipedia; I don't know if she'll see that message.  I have the PDFs, but I'm not willing to forward via e-mail PDFs that I received from someone else, because I have these ridiculously strong beliefs about the privacy of e-mail and never forwarding something to a third party.  I see from your the e-mail address you gave to her that you're in Europe; can you get access to the original GQ article in a library?  Neither of the articles goes into any particular depth on the Mafia issue, so I fear you'll be disappointed.  With patience, I'll eventually get around to typing up those portions for this article.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 16:52, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Ok, just let me know. Bad news is that there is not much online material from Ven. newspapers from 1993. Good news is that it is a well-delimited time frame so I can dig for old newspapers if necessary. JRSP 16:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I just need time to type it up, and I've got a thousand other things I need to answer on my talk page. I'll get to that next; I think you can probably fill in some pieces.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 16:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

On the topic of bias, I haven't even begun to work on this section, but there are some neutrality problems in your text, Mafia Expert—maybe you can work on them: The first two sentences need attribution and expansion; there are alternate POVs in the sources I have (I'll work on that when I get to that section), so they shouldn't be stated as fact without attribution. You didn't mention that Money Laundering Alert was bankrolled by Castro Llanes. It's going to take a bit of work to get through all of this, but I like to work methodically to make sure all bases are covered. Are we going into too much detail about Castro Llanes here, and should some of the content be covered in his own article? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 20:28, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * While working as Venezuela's government drug czar, Halvorssen was hired by the board of the Banco de Venezuela for $1.2 million to investigate whether Castro Llanes was using drug money, to thwart Castro Llanes' bitterly contested hostile takeover for control of the bank.[14] Castro Llanes, from Cuban descent, was considered unfit by the Venezuelan elite to lead the country’s most important banking insitution.[15] Halvorssen concluded that Castro Llanes was laundering drug money. However, Charles Intriago—a Miami lawyer and former federal prosecutor, as well as editor of Money Laundering Alert and the well-known host of a biennial national money-laundering conference that attracts justice and law enforcement authorities, who came to Castro Llanes’ defence—counters that Halvorssen ran a "smear campaign" and fed lies to US officials.


 * I agree with you that we are going into detail about Castro Llanes. Maybe expand the article about him. On the other hand, the issue is difficult to separate. You need to understand who Castro Llanes was to understand what happened to Halvorssen. But that is why I did not mention tha Castro was bankrolling Intriago. - Mafia Expert 12:05, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll put up an outline later today of a proposed article structure, so we can all get on the same page. We'll need separate articles on Helmeyer and Castro Llanes to cover some of that detail.  Mafia Expert, Sugargrrl is a brand new editor, still quite lost in all the Wiki rules, so we need to allow some time and patience for her to understand Wiki policies, consensus, NPOV, etc.  JRSP and I could pound out this article in a week or two, but we may need to take it slower.  There is definitely featured article potential here, btw.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 14:30, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm as done as I can be with the Personal and Professional sections. I've covered everything mentioned in the sources I have, except that Halvorssen was a member of the Caracas Country Club and piloted his own plane; neither of those are exceptional for Venezuelans of his generation and socio-economic class. The sources give no further information such as professional accolades, his marriage (not a single mention of his family life other than his wife's name), what kind of family man he was, or what his friends and acquaintances think of him other than the "James Bond" comments. On the other hand, we have a picture of a man who owned a lion in college, and was partying, drinking, and jet-setting around the world during his son's formative years, and whose family members were decorated by the King of Norway while he wasn't, so I hope the sections I wrote aren't subject to accusations of bias. I tried to cover everything in the sources, while being sure to include the portions that will be relevant later in the article to the various theories about which of his many potential enemies may have framed him (CAP, Castro Llanes, Escobar, CIA/DEA). Actually, at this point, I'd wager that the personal and professional sections are short on positive information about him, and aren't biased in his favor. I should review the sources and see if I can add something positive. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 20:28, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Eight days
I haven't found this issue of eight days without charges in any of my reading yet; I'm hoping someone else can dig up something on that, or Sugargrrl will pop in and tell us where that came from. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 17:16, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * In 1993 executive authorities could put you in jail for 8 days without charges (Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, later declared unconstitutional). What I understand is that authorities kept him in jail for more than 8 days without charges which was illegal even with that law. JRSP 17:22, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Can you find a source? It' hard for me to search in Spanish because I don't always know what keywords to search on.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 17:37, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.16.Add.8.Sp?Opendocument Quote, item 116: "El lapso establecido por la ley para que las autoridades policiales que hayan practicado medidas de detención preventiva pongan al indiciado a la orden del correspondiente tribunal es de ocho días contados a partir de la fecha de la detención (artículo 75-H del vigente Código de Enjuiciamiento Criminal). ". It was Código de Enjuiciamiento Criminal not Vagos y Maleantes. It was derogated too by the Código Orgánico Procesal Penal. Items 117 and 118 are related to this too. Do we need to source that this was the law in 1993? The document is from 1998. JRSP 18:09, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No, that's good for sourcing the law, but do we have a source that says he was detained illegally without charges for longer than 8 days? Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:12, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure. HRF says charges "were dropped" so perhaps he was charged after all. Let me see if I can get something online. JRSP 18:22, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Alleged Escobar letters
Both sources mention drug money-laundering connection to Escobar via a letter. The Gazette mentions a controversy, but doesn't specify the nature of the controversy—darn, since these are PDF images, I can't do a text search and this is very time-consuming:

From GQ (very surface analysis, this is all):
 * ... wonders how Castro, whose first job in the country was as a lowly insurance salesman, grew so extremely rich so quickly. Perhaps there is a clue in a letter that Pablo Escobar, the late boss of the Medellin drug cartel, wrote to his lawyer, Jose Arturo Gaviria, in December 1983.  "His [Castro's] proposal interests me," wrote Escobar.  "It involves good profits to both parties and insurance firms are a suitable mechanism."

From Pennsylvania Gazette, p. 24 (more thorough detail, but still incomplete):
 * Halvorssen says that Banco de Venezuela hired him to investigate the rumors of Castro's links to money-laundering and narcotics. The rumors, claims Halvorssen, originated with the surfacing of a letter from Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar to his lawyer. The letter names Castro and adds: "His proposals interest me ... insurance firms are a suitable mechanism."  The issue of the letter's authenticity still rages.

So, the Gazette seems to imply that the controversy has to do with whether Banco de Venezuela arranged falsification of letters? Gee, wouldn't that be surprising. JRSP, can you fill in the gaps on the nature of the controversy ? The way Hilton alleges it as fact is certainly a concern, and you can see the more careful language used by Fonzi in the Gazette. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 17:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Yuppie bombings
JRSP, are there there other articles that discuss the Yuppie bombings? Should I add the background here, or does it warrant its own article? If so, we have to find a name, because the name includes quote marks, and it's best to avoid special characters in titles where possible, per WP:MSH. I wanted to work on those and Yallop today. If we need a separate article, perhaps Caracas bombings (1993) ? I don't like the idea of "Yuppie" bombings. Or should I just add a background section here? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 18:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * No mention of these events except for the Halvorssens' articles and a brief mention at Maricarmen Regueiro. Nothing in es-wiki (searched for Halvorssen and for Helmeyer). Eventually, if we need an article for the bombings, Caracas bombings (1993) sounds better for wikipedia, "yuppie bombings" or "terrorismo financiero" sound like tabloid headlines. JRSP 18:34, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * So for now, we'll just add it here. There is so much information here that this is very slow going.  I think I've patched up the dates now, and dealt with establishing context for later implications of a CIA/DEA connection in the professional section.  It my be unclear at this stage why I added all that, but it has to do with the theories advanced later.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I've got to take a break for a bit, and I'll work on the Yallop section later today; I hope your search skills can turn up something on the eight days and the Escobar letter controversy. It's all yours for now (no edt conflicts!) I haven't yet looked into sourcing his father as Norwegian ambassador. I deleted the wikilink to his father because I don't imagine anyone writing that article.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 19:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Investigative reporter
I suggest that we remove the description (investigative reporter) of Isabel Hilton from the text, as she has her own article, and the additional description here gives undue weight to her over any other source (aren't all the other reporters also "investigative"?). The GQ report isn't superior to any other source used, and has some factual errors. She says the coup occurred in 1993, and she says Castro was successful in his bid to take over Banco de Venezuela. She also leaves out any discussion of the controversy surrounding the Escobar letters (Talk:Thor Halvorssen Hellum). We should avoid giving that source any more importance than any other source, although I did leave the mention of GQ inline to make it clear that it's the British version. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 21:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Have material-lots of it
hi. thanks for being so patient with me and so helpful. i am happy to scan and email everything we have here. we have boxes of newspapers from the time. we have every article written about the bombing case, from the first to the release. Virtually all the media effort, until the involvement of Amnesty, Morgenthau, Yallop, and the British house of lords and house of commons, is entirely negative and ridiculously overboard against him. things started to change when international outcry began. halvorssen was held in the reten de catia which is a prison Pope John paul 2 asked the venezuelan government to demolish because it was so medieval. there is no question someone was out to kill halvorssen and eliminate any shred of credibility he could have in a u.s. court of law. the list, as the gq piece demonstrates, is a long one: gustaf gomez-lopez (banco latino), orlando castro (banco progreso), carlos andres perez (impeached due to the evidence halvorssen provided on his bank account), gustaf cisneros (banco latino), pablo escobar, the cuntreras brothers as revenge, or a combination of all of the above. the case is thick like pudding and parsing out everything would take hundreds of pages. he was issued an arrest warrant which venezuelean authorities call an "auto de detention" eight days after he was actually detained. the first 8 days were completely illegal detention. there were never any charges against him formally prepared by the fiscale nacional's office, just the bench warrant. it was rescinded by a higher court in december and he was freed. so, the "charges" were just an arrest warrant. if you think of it in the context of what he was put through there is a conspiracy afoot. and i am not saying that because we have a project we are working on. i have also all the copies of the escobar stuff including an affidavit from escobar's right-hand man "popeye" who is currently in a columbian prison. i can email it to anyone. it mentions the orlando castro connection. in the end castro fled venezuela so if halvorssen was smearing him how did halvorssen cause the collapse of his bank plus charges from DA morgenthau? he'd have to be a magician. and the latino bank case is also another doozey. these are real facts with many criminal things happening. why is it so hard to connect the dots and see halvorssen as the victim of a huge conspiracy? the articles from when he was in prison are hard to put any trust in if one considers the evidence after the fact. similarly, the 1994 piece in GQ and the gazette piece are seriously outdated. sandy, orlando castro did take over banco de venezuela in the end, FYI. he partnered with jose alvarez stelling and did so. jose alvarez stelling is a fugitive from venezuela considering not only did banco venezuela collapsed but so did banco consolidado--his own bank. the only main problem is that all of the newspaper copies we have here are not online. we have copies of everything from halvorssen-hellum's files 70.23.3.191 21:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Ambassador title: we have a copy of his passport and credentials here. it states "Embajador Especial Para Asuntos Anti-Droga." They are signed by the Venezuelan Foreign minister and then there are credential letters from ambassadors in washington, japan, and uk introducing him as ambassador.70.23.3.191 22:00, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * It is not necessary that sources be available online. Just let us know the newspaper/magazine issue and somebody can try finding it in their local library; occasionally you can e-mail some article but we understand you can't email all the material you have. Also, please check the no original research policy: we can only say what sources say without adding our own inferences. The copy of the passport is a primary source, according to wikipedia policies a secondary reliable source is preferred, that is, a respectable newspaper/mags/media calling him "Ambassador", check WP:V and WP:RS for details. For instance, do you have a (secondary) source reporting that Shelton purchased the rights for the story? JRSP 22:17, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Would a newspaper article from the New York times work? How is this:

The New York Times

April 4, 1996, Thursday, Late Edition - Final

Too Close for Comfort?; Inquiry Touches Money Laundering Expert's Backer

BYLINE: By PETER TRUELL

SECTION: Section D; Page 1;  Column 2;  Business/Financial Desk

LENGTH: 1972 words

DATELINE: MIAMI

Charles A. Intriago is one of the nation's most trusted chroniclers of the war on money laundering. Through his Money Laundering Alert, the 54-year-old lawyer has befriended leaders of the crackdown on financial skulduggery by drug lords and tax evaders, citing them in his newsletter, inviting them to speak at his conferences and gossiping with them on the phone. His editorial board of advisers is a roster of former top American Government officials and bank regulators, including Jo Ann S. Barefoot, a former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, and Robert E. Powis, a former Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary. He himself once served as special counsel on organized crime to then-Gov. Reubin O. Askew of Florida, and he prosecuted white-collar criminals as an assistant United States attorney in Miami. His expertise on money laundering has made him an oft-quoted source in newspapers.

But now, Mr. Intriago finds himself in an uncomfortable position for such a high-profile authority on money laundering: defending his close relationship with Orlando Castro Llanes, a banker who is now under investigation for money laundering in both the United States and his native Venezuela, and who was charged late last year by the Venezuelan authorities with bank fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy. [Mr. Castro, his son and grandson were taken into custody on Wednesday morning by the Dade County, Fla., authorities, acting on behalf of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan, on charges of grand larceny, according to Richard Sharpstein, a lawyer acting for Mr. Castro. He said the New York authorities were seeking his clients' extradition to New York. Mr. Morgenthau's office said only that it would make an announcement on Thursday.]

In addition, the Federal Reserve Board is investigating Mr. Castro, along with several Venezuelan banks and companies that his family formerly controlled, including Banco Progreso and Banco Republica, according to a former Customs official and other people who were questioned recently by the Fed, the District Attorney's office and foreign officials. But the Fed delayed a civil action that it had planned to announce with Mr. Morgenthau. It declined to comment.

Mr. Castro, who is in his mid-60's, was the original backer for Mr. Intriago's company, Alert International Inc. of Miami, and has been his law client for 16 years. In recent years, that has involved Mr. Intriago's defending his client against the inquiries of investigators. After American Customs agents subpoenaed and froze several of Banco Progreso's accounts at the midtown Manhattan branch of BankAmerica International for suspected money laundering in March 1991, Mr. Intriago persuaded a Federal court to halt the investigation and unfreeze the accounts.

Mr. Morgenthau's office and Customs Service investigators are looking into the circumstances under which the investigation was stopped.

By his own admission, Mr. Intriago chose not to go to the authorities in 1993 and 1994 with material that his own investigator said contained evidence strongly suggesting large-scale money laundering at Mr. Castro's Banco Progreso. But Mr. Intriago, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, dismissed the investigator's conclusions and said the material showed no such thing.

The evidence had been gathered by Richard Lucas, a former I.R.S. agent specializing in accounting fraud and money laundering. He had been hired by Mr. Intriago to unearth information that would help Mr. Castro in the wake of the Customs Service inquiry in New York, as well as to look into a possible smear campaign against him.

As part of that investigation, Mr. Lucas documented what he considered to be suspicious transfers of as much as $3 billion to and from Progreso accounts at the New York office of Banco Atlantico, a bank based in Madrid, between 1991 and 1994. An investigator provided The New York Times with copies of Mr. Lucas's records, which he said he had obtained in Caracas.

"The Manhattan District Attorney is looking into those accounts," said Sheila M. Donovan, a senior executive at Banco Atlantico, adding, "We are cooperating."

In a letter from his own lawyer, Parker D. Thomson, Mr. Intriago justified his decision not to disclose Mr. Lucas's findings to American authorities on the grounds that they were an "attorney work product, privileged and confidential." Besides, he added, he had determined that Mr. Lucas's "conclusions are fundamentally flawed" and therefore did not amount to evidence of wrongdoing.

Mr. Intriago also said that Mr. Lucas had been accused of "appropriating" the records belonging to Mr. Castro and "selling" them to Thor L. Halvorssen, a Venezuelan businessman who was the country's antidrug czar with the rank of ambassador from 1989 to 1994. Mr. Halvorssen gave them to American investigators, according to the letter. Mr. Lucas has maintained that the records are the property of the Government of Venezuela because it has taken over the bank. [...]

is this kind of sourcing OK? Is the New York Times a secondary source that would meet your wikipedia standards. let me know given that primary sources are not acceptable. i am trying to learn my way around this.

no, there is no announcement on the purchase of the movie rights. and don't expect one till there is a director attached.70.23.3.191 22:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, Amanda, JRSP and I both know the story very well, so the time you spend typing it out could be better spent reading up on Wikipedia's policies and what conditions have to be met in order to add information to Wiki.  We can't add something based on you having a copy of his passport.  Have you had time yet to read about attribution, reliable sources and no original research on Wiki? If there's no source for the purchase of the rights, that's no problem; we can just leave the tag on it until a source becomes available. Are you sure there's no industry trade report or something you can cite that to?  Also, you don't have to post full articles here; yes, the New York Times is a reliable source, but I can access those articles myself online via my local library, so posting them here only fills up the page unnecessarily.  Just tell us the basic info on the source (author, title, date, publication), and we'll let you know if we can find it.  For example, the only reason I couldn't find the GQ article is because it's British, but I have access to WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, etc. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 22:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Just another note ... another reason to avoid posting full articles here is that it's a copyright violation, so take care with that, OK? Keep learning, you'll get there.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 22:58, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

ohmygod, i am so sorry. i didnt meand to violate copyright. i thought it was fair use standard to quote something on an educational thing like this. i am sorry. i wont do it again. i'm learning. slowly. i will keep editing this....70.23.3.191 23:07, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Don't worry—there's no copyright police on this page, I just wanted to make sure you knew for the future. I installed "hats" on the articles to shorten up the talk page.  If anyone doesn't like them, say the word, and I'll remove.  (Fair Use allows quoting of a portion, not usually the entire thing.)  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 23:14, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Edward Snider
Amanda, I don't know who Edward Snider is, and I can't find him in the sources; which source is he in? Because the documents are PDF images, I can't do a text search on them, and re-reading the entire articles to find this fellow will take a lot of time. Do you know what source/what page he's on, and who he is? The article needs some context for him, and he has to be notable to have his own (red-linked) article. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 23:27, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Mixing sources
Hey, Amanda, I'm unsure whether to communicate with you on your talk page or here; it would be very helpful if you'd weigh in regularly on the article talk page. This edit has several problems. Wording like "raged in" isn't encyclopedic; encyclopedias avoid hyperbole. Also, you added info you said was from the Times article, but to a sentence cited to other sources, so that creates quite a mess. It would be good to use that undo button now, and start over. Each piece of text you add needs to clearly sourced. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 23:37, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The source (Fonzi) says "when the Contra movement and guerrilla battles were hot there"; not sure that's the same as "civil wars". Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 03:25, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The contra guerilla activities in Nicaragua in the 1980s are sometimes refered to as "civil war" but more frequently as "conflict". Different case for Guatemala or El Salvador situations that are usually known as civil wars. JRSP 03:57, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as outside interference and the Contras are concerned lets call it what it was: counter-insurgency. I have changed it accordingly. - Mafia Expert 20:52, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Did you intend to leave it as "during the counter-insurgency wars " ?  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 21:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I am open for other wording. Civil wars is not reflecting the conflict though. - Mafia Expert 22:17, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Doesn't counter-insurgency stand alone? Isn't "wars" redundant?  I really don't know, asking.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 22:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Article structure
This article has potential for featured status; the story is interesting, and there are ample sources. Amanda, becoming a featured article means that it becomes eligible to appear on Wikipedia's main page as Today's featured article, where a gazillion people will see it, as opposed to being just another Wiki article. You inquired elsewhere about all of the barnstars on my userpage; those are because I'm actively involved in the process of reviewing featured article candidates relative to the featured article requirements and helping other editors bring their articles to featured status. If you will get up on Wiki's policies of neutrality, reliable sources and no original research (summarized at attribution), and if we can all work together, we have the basics of a good story and I know all of the manual of style and referencing requirements necessary to attain featured status. If we are working at cross purposes and spending time making daily corrections to conform with the manual of style and referencing, it's not likely the article will rise out of the basement.

I propose the structure below just to get us going; the article organization may change as we get into this, but there is so much to cover that it will help if we're not working at cross purposes. If we agree on a structure, we can divide up the work; for example, I suggest we lose the Ashenoff sources, and that  can write a lot of the Castro Llanes article based on everything available in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other reliable sources.

Proposal

 * 1) The lead is writtten last, as a compelling, stand-alone summary of the entire article.
 * 2) Professional – similar to what is there now, expand if possible.
 * 3) Arrest and imprisonment – start with a two- or three-paragraph summary, and then branch into sub-sections below (the summary can be written last, after all the pieces are in place).  The summary will explain the basics:  that he was arrested, beaten, later released and absolved, but had many enemies who could have wanted him imprisoned.  Then we build the details:
 * 4) Caracas 1993 bombings and arrest
 * 5) Ramiro Helmeyer – a summary relevant to Halvorssen, but most of the detail can be expanded at Ramiro Helmeyer.
 * 6) Imprisonment – discuss torture, Reten de Catia, organizations that came to his defense, etc. Then branch into all of his potential enemies who could have wanted him imprisoned.
 * 7) Potential enemies – The order on these may change depending on the flow of the story.
 * 8) Carlos Andrés Pérez
 * 9) Mafia
 * 10) Intelligence and drug enforcement community
 * 11) Drug cartel – don't spend too much time on Pablo Escobar, as it's a very weak link, possibly forged documents
 * 12) Banking community – a summary, a lot of this detail needs to go to Orlando Castro Llanes
 * 13) Aftermath – he was released, orgs came to his defense, he fingered Castro Llanes in the press, fallout of banking scandal, information that has come to light since his release, alternate views of his role, etc.
 * 14) Book and movie rights – cover the Yallop affair and the movie
 * 15) Personal – similar to what is there now, expand if possible

Sandy Georgia (Talk) 16:31, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Comments on proposal ?
Comments ? Sandy Georgia (Talk) 16:31, 23 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I almost agree. Perhaps 3.1 (bombings) and 3.2 (Helmeyer) could be merged for this article (but both subjects can stand as articles by themselves). We also need to say what he has been doing after his release, but that can be covered in 2 and 5. The 3.4 "Potential enemies" section title could be a magnet for conspiration theories and original research, perhaps we could think of another title for this subsection. But generally speaking, I agree with the proposal. JRSP 17:20, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * We can tweak the titles, and merge/separate/expand sections, but this also gives us a means of dividing up the work. For example, I'd like to start roughing out some sections based on the info in the sources Sugargrrrl sent me (there is SO much there to work with), so that you can fill in the blanks with sources available in Spanish. The GQ piece isn't thorough, but the Gazette gives me a lot to work with. Yes, we need to avoid titles that are magnets. Ideas ? Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 17:32, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, I merged Helmeyer and bombings above, so they're no longer 3.1 and 3.2. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 17:41, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, "Potential enemies" is a problem, and I'm not coming up with a better option. How about something like "Other parties" which is more neutral? "Other players"?  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 17:44, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, let's wait for other opinions but I like top-down design, working early on structure pays in the long term. I also listed the articles in WikiProject Venezuela to see if we get more input. I agree these articles have FA status potential. JRSP 17:56, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, let's see if we can get all parties to read the talk page; if not, I've got a lot to keep me busy elsewhere. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:02, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Oops, sorry, I was already adding some stuff before I saw the proposal. My comments are: we cannot put too many of the details in articles about other major people involved, because they are not written (yet). The Halvorssen article needs to be a stand alone article in which major events need to be explained. For the time being it will be the main article on the events, untill others decide to expand articles on other people and events in which Halvorssen played a role. I am not planning to write an article on Castro Llanes, because I do not work on this issue. My curiosity was triggered by the reference to the Cuntrera arrests (and I doubt Halvorssen played a major role in that). I did read "La DEA contra la Guardia Nacional de Venezuela" by Manuel Malaver some years ago and was struck by the biased treatment of Halvorssen in this article. That is why I decided to add some other information. Other areas to expand are his role in supporting the Contra's in Nicaragua. I am sorry to destroy other people's image of the heroic exploits of Halvorssen, but I am afraid the guy is not the clear cut hero others make of him (and his son, by the way). - Mafia Expert 18:21, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Good additions. I was taking it slowly to avoid WP:BITE, but perhaps your bolder additions will move things along faster.  Do you want to stay involved as we develop the rest?  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:28, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't want to scare away newcomers, and I hope I didn't. But it can be a hard world out there in Wikipedia-land. Until now this has been a very cooperative and civil common effort, unlike some of the disputes I ran into. Let's hope it stays that way, you have done your part very diplomatically. Topics about Venezuela tend to go out of hand. I don't think I am going to be very much involved in this, but will check in every now and then. - Mafia Expert 19:45, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * By the way, if you have sources handy on the Contra issue, can you toss them our way ? Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 18:30, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I see what I can do. I remember some mentioning about in Malaver's book, but I don't have that at hand right now. - Mafia Expert 19:52, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Cuban descent
This sentence needs reworking; being of Cuban descent is not cause for Venezuelan society to reject Castro Llanes, reference Gustavo Cisneros. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 18:24, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Castro Llanes, from Cuban descent, was considered unfit by the Venezuelan elite to lead the country’s most important banking insitution.[18]
 * I reworked that. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 19:09, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Cuntrera family
Yes, Mafia Expert, not only is the GQ report very "fluffy" on all counts (I'd still like to remove the qualifier on Hilton from the article), the link is weak. Since you may not have the source, here is some of the text:

From GQ:
 * Small wonder that the Italian authorities got no response to their repeated requests for the extradition of the Cuntreras, who were only finally expelled at the end of 1992 after an investigation into their activities by the Venezuelan Senate. "Do you know," I was asked by Senator Cristobal Fernandez Dalo, chairman of the Committee for the Investigation of Money Laundering and Drug Trafficking, "who supplied the information that launched that investigation into the Cuntreras?  It was Thor Halvorssen."

GQ goes on to say Dalo was convinced Halvorssen was framed. That's it. Dalo has been described as Halvorssen's ally.

From the Gazette:
 * Soon, the bad guys began to feel his [Halvorssen's] sting. It was in that position, for instance, that Halvorssen was able to push through an investigation of the Cuntreras and force the Government to honor a four-year-old extradition request from Italy.  The remaining Mafia in Venezuela do not remember Halvorssen fondly for that.

The Pennsylvania Gazette is more thorough than GQ overall, but its content should be viewed in the context that most of the Halvorssen family attended UPENN. That's it; perhaps Halvorssen had a hand in launching the investigation or providing information. Perhaps you or JRSP can find more in other sources; otherwise, it's a minor part of the story (although I'm sure that both the Mafia and Escobar will figure prominently in Hollywood :-) Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 19:09, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I'll remove the qualifier on Hilton, I think I did put it there initially. - Mafia Expert 19:54, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Recent edits
I have done considerable research to address gaps, oddities in the timing, and problems of context. Regardless of how many times MafiaExpert wants to alter this profile to underline the negative comments by the DEA that appeared in U.S. News the reality is these comments appeared when Halvorssen was in prison and was widely considered to have placed a terrorist bomb. This is not an insignificant fact. They were trying to distance themselves as quickly as possible. Especially if, as they said, he was an informant. Halvorssen's detractors at the time: Intriago, Castro, and President Perez were ALL later found to have been the ones engaging in illegal or criminal activity. All references to the DEA and "unusual ties to drug traffickers"--something that appears nowhere else and i cannot find any support for such a claim *anywhere*--are suspect given the little attention that has gotten when there is so much material on his work in other areas.

So, before you make any huge changes to my edits please let's discuss this in a civil manner.Sweetness 03:43, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think you did a great job here. The only thing I was concerned with was that the article should reflect that Halvorssen's involvement in drug trafficking investigations was controversial. I think that is now properly reflected. As far as the smear campaign issue, it is not that important. The remark that he was a victim as well as a prepetrator of smear campaigns was an attempt to summarize what followed in the article. The US News article is not the only one with negative comments of the DEA about Halvorssen. For a better understanding of this issue I suggest you read Manuel Malaver's book La DEA contra la Guardia Nacional de Venezuela (Gama Editores, 1999). But otherwise, I think your editing is balanced. - Mafia Expert 16:02, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I also did some additional research and added material from Malaver's book, while retaining your edits. I hope you will do the same. I think we have now a balanced article reflecting all the different facts and opinions. - Mafia Expert 17:59, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Malaver's book is not available for the rest of us to review and I absolutely challenge what you write here. I will remove the material from there. Without viewing the context I will believe you did with that book what you did with the things I had to fix in which you injected your own POV instead of faithfully reflecting what the source said. SorrySweetness 06:44, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Other sources referenced are also not directly available to many to review. Go to library and check it out. The article in El Universal is a review of the book describing the main issues. I think is a completely reliable source. The Malaver book is in fact one of the most indepth researches into this issue. This has nothing to do with my point of view. I could not care less. I think you should look at your own POV. You simply refuse to accept any criticism of your hero. Sorry you. I restored the edits I made. - Mafia Expert 12:33, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree Malaver's book is a valid source and that both paragraphs are attributed to "his adversaries" and "Manuel Malaver" so I don't think they should be removed, especially considering they help balance the generally sympathetic tone of the article. JRSP 12:56, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Moreover, Malaver as a source was already accepted before. The Recuerdos del terrorismo caraqueño article in Tal Cual is in fact based on a chapter of the book. There was no problem with that at the time, why should it be a problem now? For Sweetness convenience I also added that Halvorssen denies being a CIA agent. So do not ever accuse me of POV again, I quote whatever reliable source I can find to give a balanced view. - Mafia Expert 13:41, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I also changed the chnages that were made implying that the DEA only discredited Halvorssen after he was arrested. After re-reading the relevant sources that is not true. The Guillen Davila/Grimm affair took place in 1991, long before Halvorssen's arrest, although the sources that mention it are from the time of his arrest. That is probably the reason for the confusion. - Mafia Expert 16:53, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Re-edit
I moved Malaver's recontruction to the heading "Arrest and imprisonment" to put Halvorssen's arrest in context. However, I think the article structure should be changed because it does not flow chronologically. I propose to put "Intrigue and mutual accusations" before "Arrest and imprisonment" and re-edit it accordingly. Let me know what you think. - Mafia Expert 16:23, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you that the structure didn't flow too well. I removed a redundancy in a paragrpah you inserted from Malaver's book. You had it twice that he said Halvorssen was CIA and you had it twice that Malaver says Halvorssen had rogue policemen going after Andrez Velazquez). I also corrected that error. Andrez Velazquez was never president of Venezuela. Ramon Velazquez, however, was (according to the wiki entry on presidents of venezuela). i also fleshed out Halvorssen's response to Malaver.  With regard to your DEA quotation unless you find a date *before* his arrest there is nothing to prove that he was on the outs with them from before. If they declared themselves on the outs it was during the time he was in prison. Not before--and any reference needs to be contextualized. I also added his marriage story from the NYTSweetness 04:42, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Removal of problematic text
Some of the January 18 edits here have introduced plagiarism, misrepresentation of sources, incorrectly cited text, undue attention to trivia, and cherry picking of sources.
 * Don't you think you exaggerate a bit, using terms from sources is not plagiarism. - Mafia Expert (talk)
 * No, I don't; that much use of text directly from the source is plagiarism. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:23, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Text added and cited to the Fonzi source:


 * Halvorssen, of Norwegian origin, is one of the four sons of a Norwegian war hero, Østein Halvarsson, the former Norwegian Ambassador in Venezuela, who became the president of General Motors Acceptance Corporation in Venezuela before he began his own distributing operations. He led the jet-setting life style of a happy-go-lucky son of a wealthy Venezuelan bussinessman and double-dated Candice Bergen with his twin brother Olaf. They befriended Jerry Wolman, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team and became his partners in real estate deals and night clubs. Halvorssen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) in 1966 and completed a Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania MBA in 1969. While at UPENN, Halvorssen owned a pet lion, Petunia.
 * The source does not say Thor double-dated Candice Bergen with his brother (bussinessman is misspelled, and the source says: "flew to Paris on week ends, and double-dated with his twin Olaf (also '66 W, '68 WG), who was then romancing a coed named Candice Bergen");
 * Fair, I removed that. Mafia Expert (talk)
 * that his brother was romancing Candice Bergen seems to give undue weight to unnecessary trivia in this article (particularly in relation to everything else that could be mentioned) as does mention of the Lion Petunia;
 * OK, removed that to. - Mafia Expert (talk)
 * rewording needed to avoid plagiarism, the source says: "... they became his partners in real estate deals and night clubs ...";
 * the ... "happy-go-lucky son of a wealthy Venezuelan businessman" and "jet-setting life style" is also taken directly from the source and needs to be reworded;
 * Come on, these are just terms from the source which are rephrased in a different sentence. Attributed to the source. - Mafia Expert (talk)
 * Then they should be in quotes. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:23, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * also plagiarized is the text "... Norwegian war hero, Østein Halvarsson, the former Norwegian Ambassador in Venezuela, who became the president of General Motors Acceptance Corporation in Venezuela before he began his own distributing operations."
 * Reworded. - Mafia Expert (talk) 01:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


 * He associated closely with Duane Clarridge, the former head of the Latin American division of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who was indicted for perjury in the Iran-Contra scandal and reputedly planned clandestine mining operations in Nicaragua's harbors during the 1980s.


 * The source says:
 * (Halvorssen himself denies he was ever a contract agent for the C.I.A., but he admits he has "cooperated" with the agency and associated closely with Duane "Dewey" Clarridge, the former head of the CIA's Latin American division who was indicted for perjury in the Iran-Contra scandal.)
 * The source does not mention mining Nicaragua's harbors, and needs to be rewritten to avoid plagiarism.
 * See Duane Clarridge. - Mafia Expert (talk) 01:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Wiki is not a reliable source: this article has to include sources, and this article is not about Duane Clarridge (who should be linked here, though). Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:23, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Funny you say that Wikipedia is not a reliable source, I hope Jimmy Wales does not read this. I found a source, though, and I think it is important to mention what kind of guy Clarridge is. - Mafia Expert (talk) 01:38, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I am quite certain Jimbo Wales would not disagree that Wiki is not a reliable source, since our own policy pages state same. At any rate, see note on Clarridge below; his offenses (unrelated to Halvorssen) don't belong in this article, and stringing together sources to connect them is WP:SYNTHESIS and original research.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:40, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't agree. It is important to mention Halvorssen's intelligence contacts and the kind of people they were. The article clearly shows that he got in trouble associating with these kinds of people, so it is important to mention. And it is only one sentence. Pfff, give me a break. - Mafia Expert (talk)


 * Halvorssen denies being a CIA agent, but admits having worked with the agency.
 * See above, this text does not adhere to the source. Neither does the cited El Universal page support this text. He admits to having "cooperated".


 * His son, Thor, helped organize an international outcry for his release among law-enforcement, intelligence, political, human-rights, and foreign-media associates of his father.
 * This text is also plagiarized (and US English, not British, is used in Venezuela and in this article).

From Quemados recientes, El Universal, April 23, 2000


 * Despite Malaver and Intriago's claims that Castro was an honest businessman being smeared by Halvorssen, Castro was convicted and sentenced to prison in 1997 for defrauding depositors in his bank. That year, he was burned in effigy in Venezuela across the country.
 * The source given is a blog text, and does not support the cited text.

Considering the extensive misrepresentation and plagiarism, I'm concerned about the rest of the article. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 00:13, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You should have been concerned about the misrepresentation a long time ago, but did nothing to correct them. I have now read Fonzi's article and found that the previous version had significant misrepresentation. For instance, the previous version said he was tortured while it becomes clear from Fonzi's article that, although there was mistreatment, that cannot be considered torture. - Mafia Expert (talk) 01:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry I'm unable to clean up all of Wiki: I work on articles like this when they pop on my watchlist, as this one did today. Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:23, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * You had the Fonzi souce more than one and half year ago when the article popped continuously on your watchlist for a couple of weeks, but you did nothing to put in the "more careful language" (your own words) of that well-investigated story. I am sorry, but don't blame me for finally reviewing the article again and balance it a bit more. - Mafia Expert (talk) 01:53, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

This edit is WP:COATRACKing; Clarridge's other offenses belong in his article, not here. Since Duane Clarridge is linked, the extra info about his other offenses, unrelated to Halvorssen, are unwarranted in this article. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 01:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. now if only newbie editors who come across this page would cease refighting previously addressed points. edit warring can be so disruptiveMarturetCR (talk) 23:00, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Just because one person objects to include more information on Clarridge does not mean that this person is correct. Adding one sentence on Clarridge is relevant here to show the James Bond attitude of Halvorssen. Other people in this article also have an extra info about them added to briefly explain who they are. And calling somebody a newbie is not considered civil. - DonCalo (talk) 14:53, 3 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Claridge has his own article, there is no reason to expound on him here, and there is no consensus on this page to add that text (Mafia expert= DonCalo, same editor). Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 23:20, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
 * No consensus to REMOVE that text. It has been there for more than a year. I shortened it a bit to try to reach a consensus, but you are clearly trying to push your POV. - DonCalo (talk) 06:14, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Please try to curb your civility. Two editors want the text removed because it is irrelevant to this article and belongs in Claridge's article, only you want it to stay.  Who's got a POV, against consensus, and has yet to make a non-POV based argument for retaining the text, which amounts to coatracking and synthesis?  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 09:21, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

reversion of doncalo's reversion
The mafia don has unfortunately removed edits that were worked in order to eliminate redundant tet and to add balance to the article. it also removed portions that were clearly orphans from previous edits that add nothing to the reader or scholar. DonCalo pls keep the discussion HERE rather than making UNAUTHORIZED removals. Thanks 208.125.21.226 (talk) 02:32, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

I just found an interesting pattern. DonCalo was in a revert edit war with another user. these edits look like retaliation for edits made to other articles edited heavily by doncalo. Methinks there is a conflict of interest here. hmmm. 208.125.21.226 (talk) 02:35, 5 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Dear "Methinks", removal of sourced material comes close to vandalism. Nothing wrong with restructuring the article, but that is not what happened. The end result became an apology, in stead of a balanced article. The article has been the result of extensive debates and rewrites, and we are going to change that because of a few single purpose accounts. - DonCalo (talk) 18:28, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

DonCalo's your single purpose account appears to be mafia topics. i hardly think editing for balance is a sin. throw in as many rules as you want at me. your edits are out of balance.74.108.233.22 (talk) 00:02, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Wow, it appears user DonCalo thinks he owns this page. This BLP makes a number of extremely damaging assertions about the subject in question. It uses articles and quotations gleaned from when this man was in prison in venezuela on what the New York Times now calls trumped-up charges. The folks who, in 1993, attacked Halvorssen are now either fugitives, have been exposed as fraudsters, or have gone to prison. yet DonCalo, who has a penchant for Mafia Boss articles, seems to like the confusion and is using articles that are 20 years old (!!) as well as books by dubious authors whose publications wouldn't qualify as an RS. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia, not a personal narrative fiction platform for a frustrated mafia book writer. I suggest this community take a deep look in the mirror and figure out if new information should be used to clean up this appalling and confusing narrative cobbled together from sources during an extremely contentious time in this man's life. If I can see these issues using google, surely wikipedians with more time and resources can do better. DonCalo's revisions and reversions are an embarrassment to him and to this community.12.130.116.6 (talk) 03:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

CIA informant accusation
In your recent addition claiming that Halvorssen was a CIA informant, even the National Review source that yourself provided notes the following with irony: [Klassekampen] reported that Thor Halvorssen had been a CIA agent, working in El Salvador, from 1980 to 1989. In 1980, Halvorssen was three or four. Very precocious kid. Can you please elaborate on how this is an appropriate source to put the statement with an editorial voice?

You might also see how I have already edited in this article way back in 2018:, so I ask you once again to stop with the hounding accusations. Regards, --NoonIcarus (talk) 18:07, 16 February 2024 (UTC)


 * They are discussing the difference between the father and the son. Also, interesting that you are reviewing my edits on an article you haven’t edited for six years… WMrapids (talk) 18:18, 16 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Not so interesting after three reverts from your part on different articles and if this article is in my wathlist, so I'd really reconsider who is doing the hounding.
 * Back at the sources, the National Review does not include any other mention of the CIA, and the Buzzfeed article casts doubts too to the content, saying: The younger Halvorssen rejects the idea that his father had a special relationship with the CIA.. You can see why this is a reference misinterpretation, and the statement at the very least should be attributed. You should not cite WP:HOUND to avoid scrutiny over your edits. --NoonIcarus (talk) 18:33, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Buzzfeed is not casting doubt, especially when they said in editorial voice that he was an CIA informant; they are only providing his son's opinion. WMrapids (talk) 21:25, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Also just to give further context of the edit, and if other editors are interested, it would be good to know about the additional source misinterpretation in these edits: --NoonIcarus (talk) 18:40, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I see the issue now; the wrong URL was provided. Apologies for any confusion. WMrapids (talk) 21:22, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for the source. I have added the attribution accordingly and added his son position, as it was stated here.
 * Also just a friendly reminder, once again, to provide the URLs in the sources you include, as it is the case with the The Billings Gazette, as it helps with verifiability. Kind regards, --NoonIcarus (talk) 14:35, 19 February 2024 (UTC)