A letter from Belen Chapur

This is the e-mail sent by María Belén Chapur to Eduardo Feinmann, a journalist with Argentina's C5N television, as published on the television station's Web site. It was translated from Spanish by McClatchy's Mark Seibel.

Dear Eduardo:

I've decided to send you this communication, which will be the only one, to clarify certain incorrect things that are being said and in that way put an end to the subject that, as you can imagine, is a huge source of pain for me, my two children, my whole family and the good friends, men and women, whom I've gathered throughout my life and who have always been with me.

1. Of my private life I won't say anything, now or in the future. It's been made public enough already, a fact that causes me terrible discomfort.

2. I deny categorically that the person who hacked my "Hotmail" was the friend with whom I shared some days in Brazil during the Rolex Regatta. This friend, as everyone can read in my emails, is a most excellent, respectable and honorable man incapable of doing such a thing. Not only is he not the author of this perverse act, but he also was a victim. In December 2008, the e-mails were sent to him as well as to The State newspaper, anonymously by whoever hacked them.

3. My Hotmail account was hacked around the 24th of November through an old e-mail account provided by an Argentine company. I filed a complaint then with both the Argentine company that was still hosting my old account, and Hotmail.

I was able to shut down this old account and recover my hacked Hotmail on Dec. 8, after answering a long questionnaire sent by Microsoft. All this is on file with Microsoft as well as the Argentine company. I have in my possession all the complaints I sent to Microsoft and all the responses; Microsoft responded to my problem quickly and efficiently. Due to the seriousness of my complaint, the Argentine company, by phone, made an exception and immediately shut down this account, even though it wasn't in my home.

3. (sic) Finally, I have a firm suspicion of who did this great act of damage, which was aimed at me specifically but at the same time destroyed the lives of so many others. Since I don't have sufficient proof and live in a country of laws, I'm obligated to keep their identity anonymous. I'm no one's judge; I leave all that in the hands of God.

María Belén Chapur