The US Embassy in Caracas says that Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica agreed to allow the embassy to inspect one of his company’s voting machines, according to an embassy cable, but when two embassy officers arrived at his office, “Mugica said he had changed his mind. . . .”

A report of the 2005 incident is contained in a cable by Ambassador William Brownfield.

Source:
1. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables.html

1. Why might Mugica be telling the US Embassy, at this particular time, that it was considering termination of its business with the Venezuelan government’s CNE?

2. How does Mugica’s acknowledgement that it was still involved with the Chavez regime, in December 2005, square with Smartmatic’s denials of connections with the Venezuelan government?

3. Why would Mugica renege on his agreement to loan a Chinese-made Smartmatic voting machine to the American Embassy for examination?