The World - News from July 19, 1989

Argentina’s new economy minister, Nestor Rapanelli, is wanted in Venezuela on smuggling and other charges arising from wheat transactions between Venezuela and an Argentine company, a Caracas judge said. Rapanelli, 60, was sworn in Saturday to replace Economy Minister Miguel Roig, who died of a heart attack Friday, just six days after accepting the challenge to heal Argentina’s worst economic crisis. Rapanelli, who was chief executive officer of an Argentine grain conglomerate, is accused of involvement in a subsidiary’s overcharging Venezuela for wheat exported to that country between 1983 and 1988, Judge Luis Guillermo La Riva Lopez said.