Investigative reporter Frank Smyth broke the story in August when Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), who serves on the House Subcomitte on the Western Hemisphere, became the
first member of Congress ever to have a spouse serving in a foreign government (he married the daughter of former Guatemalan dictator Gen. Rios Montt).
In today's Chicago Reader, Smyth reveals that Rep. Weller has been quietly purchasing parcels of land in Nicaragua's Coco Beach area over the past for years. Some of these aquisitions Weller has reported to Congress as required by its rules -- and some he apparently has not.
When contacted, Weller's lawyers and campaign manager refuse to comment...
Frank Smyth conducted some extensive
document research and interviews in Nicaragua. What he found was:
Other documents, all from 2005, show that Weller bought two more lots in Nicaragua--neither of which is listed on his disclosure form for that year. A notarized bill of sale shows that Gerald Craig Weller--with the same passport number listed on documents for property he's disclosed to Congress--bought a fourth lot, again on Coco Beach, in March 2005, a little over three months after his wedding.
According to Smyth's research, Rep. Weller not only didn't disclose these land purchases, he managed to get them at below-market-rate prices.
Yet another notarized property title shows that in February 2005 Gerald Craig Weller sold a sixth lot somewhere in the township of San Juan del Sur--there's no indication of when it was bought or what he paid. It's 1,699 square meters, so today it would be worth at least $85,000. No income from such a sale appears on the disclosure form Weller filed for that year or in the amended form he filed in August 2006, though the forms do note the sale of the parking spot that went with his Chicago condo.
Why is Rep. Weller buying-up this property in Nicaragua, but not reporting it? Should a Congressman be secretly buying land in a country over which he has foreign policy oversight via House Committee? Will all ther newshounds who frothed over Harry Reid's land deal in Las Vegas give Weller's transactions as much scrutiny?
And as a reminder to those unfamiliar with Rep. Weller's father-in-law, Gen. Rios Montt, he is a bona fide genocidal tyrant.