Buenos Aires - The arrest of Argentina's former defense minister Antonio Erman Gonzalez on gun-running charges puts his former boss, ex-president Carlos Menem, in an embarrassing position just days ahead of his wedding with Chilean beauty queen Cecilia Bolocco.
Gonzalez, a close Menem confidant, was arrested in connection with an investigation of illegal sales of weapons and munitions to Croatia, court sources said.
Judge Julio Esperoni ordered Gonzalez jailed on charges of aggravated contraband of weapons and munitions for Croatia.
If convicted, Gonzalez - who served in three ministerial posts at separate times during Menem's 1989-1999 administration - faces up to 12 years behind bars.
Authorities here are investigating illegal arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador between 1991 and 1995, when both countries were under a United Nations arms embargo.
Menem, who currently heads the country's main opposition party, has repeatedly denied involvement in any illegal arms trading, but has agreed to testify in the case on July 13.
The Gonzalez arrest threatens to overshadow the Saturday wedding between the 70-year-old Menem and Bolocco, a former Miss Universe 34 years his junior.
On Wednesday, Menem's ex-wife Zulema Yoma gave a deposition to a separate judge naming people she believes likely know about the smuggling. She did not implicate Menem.
Yoma, however, insisted on her theory that criminals linked to drug dealers and gun runners sabotaged the helicopter that her late son, Carlos Menem junior, was traveling in when it plummeted to earth in 1995.
Another judge in the case has ruled that ex-foreign minister Guido Di Tella and the former head of the army, lieutenant general Martin Balza Nall officials during Menem's time in office - must also testify in the case.
Already under arrest as part of the probe is Yoma's brother Emir, another close Menem adviser.
Between 1991 and 1995, six Croatian ships left Buenos Aires loaded with 6 500 tons of arms for the former Yugoslavia.
And in 1995, some 75 tons of weapons were sold to Ecuador, even though it was involved in a border conflict with Peru, and Argentina was co-guarantor of peace between the two nations.
Menem has said he was the focus of "a tremendous political persecution," and that the charges were an attempt to destroy his Peronist political movement. - Sapa-AFP