Thus, from his seat, he responded to a question from the opposition on the arrival of the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodriguezat Barajas Airport.
With the solemnity of Congress, Pedro Sanchez He supported the man who was then Minister of Transport and number two in the PSOE. Two weeks later, he did so, to the laughter and applause of Pablo Iglesiasin the Senate.
VIDEO | Sánchez in 2020 on the “Delcy case”: “Mr. Ábalos did what he had to do, which was to avoid a diplomatic crisis”
Jose Luis Abalos He went on January 20, 2020 to see Delcy Rodríguez at Barajas airport. The official version at the time, changing at the time, said that he had gone to receive her so that she would not set foot on Spanish soil, as this was prohibited due to EU sanctions against Venezuela.
The Civil Guard now explains that, from the intercepted messages, it is concluded that Ábalos made an appointment with the Venezuelan vice president and intended to meet her in her ministry office to facilitate business. Victor de Aldama.
And the Civil Guard adds that the President of the Government expressly authorized the arrival of Delcy Rodríguez in Madrid, despite the ban on setting foot on European soil. He did this after receiving a WhatsApp from Ábalos in which he explained that it was about taking measures “in favor of Spanish companies”.
Ábalos’ full message to Sánchez, four days before the trip, reads: “To finish disturbing you, the vice-president of Venezuela enters private trip next Monday and he wants to see me discreetly. The management that we agreed with Spanish companies allowed Duro Felguera to recover a significant debt.” The President of the Government replied: “Good”.
It was a month later that Sánchez supported Ábalos in Parliament, without the president showing any dissatisfaction with his minister’s efforts. The official version at the time, supported by Sánchez himself, indicated that Delcy Rodríguez’s presence in Spain was improvised and unwanted by the government.
In the conversations included in the Civil Guard report, it is clear that THE “private visit” was planned by the Minister of Transport at the time and authorized by the President of the Government with this brief “good”. Sánchez knew about the visit four days before it took place, that is, it was not spontaneous nor as a stopover as the government said then, but the minister gave the president a version which turned out to be false, because it was a different type of business, it was not about helping Spanish companies.
When the February 25, 2020Sánchez was asked again, this time in the Senate, about the presence in Spain of Delcy Rodríguez, he replied: “The vice president of Venezuela was heading on a private flight to Spain. Venezuela’s first vice president weighs one European sanction which prohibits entry into European legal territory. There were two ways to prevent this from happening or preventing this from happening. The first was to generate a diplomatic crisis,” he began to explain.
And he immediately added: “The second way to respect the European agreements was to avoid a diplomatic crisis. Mr. Ábalos considered, with very good judgment, in my opinion, that the second way was preferable, that is: between By forcing or avoiding a diplomatic crisis, Mr. Ábalos chose the latter solution, to avoid a diplomatic crisis.
VIDEO | Sánchez justified in 2020 that Ábalos had avoided a “diplomatic crisis” by meeting Delcy Rodríguez in Spain
In other words, in Ábalos’ message he speaks of a “private visit” and of the President of the Government authorized it four days before it happened without heeding the ban. On the other hand, this parliamentary response only speaks of the minister’s efforts to avoid such a visit, which finally became known a few days after its completion thanks to information from Vozpopuli.
The President of the Government then supported his minister in Congress and the Senate, even after Ábalos gave different versions, such as that it was a chance meeting, because he went to the airport to get back his “personal friend”. Felix PlasenciaVenezuelan Minister of Tourism who participated in the Fitur fair. In other words, he supported it knowing that his minister had already clearly liedbecause the version that the president himself later gave was completely different from Ábalos’ initials.
Today, Moncloa sources assure that Sánchez was deceived by Ábalos, that the president never knew that Aldama had accompanied him to Barajas and that the affair subsequently triggered discussions with his minister.
However, none of this happened at the time and Ábalos remained in government and head of the party until July 2021. Subsequently, he remained a deputy and repeated on the lists in 2023, by personal decision of the President of the Government. .
From the “Begoña case” to “Koldo”
The only official version this Thursday was that of the Minister of Territorial Policy, Angel Victor Torreswho assured that as soon as the government learned that the presence of Delcy Rodríguez could result in sanctions, it was canceled and, in fact, he did not leave Barajas.
Civil Guard agents, on the other hand, affirm that they have no proof that Duro Felguera will recover the alleged debt to which Ábalos refers in his message to Sánchez. The president also made no mention of these efforts to settle the Spanish company’s debt when he reported the event to Congress and the Senate.
This report processed by the investigating judge of Koldo affaircomes a week that began with a black Monday for Pedro Sánchez in which, for example, the Madrid Provincial Court gave Judge Peinado carte blanche to continue the investigation into his wife, Begoña Gomez. And before the end of the week, the revelations about Ábalos, previously faithful squire of the socialist leader, are known.
Curiously, the only limitation imposed on the judge of Begoña affair was not to continue investigating Globalia public rescue planand now the report on the Koldo affair reveals Aldama’s direct efforts to promote this public assistance. In a way, the summary on Ábalos recovers what was abandoned on Monday from Begoña Gómez’s summary.
Between the two events relating to the judicial investigations, the legal reform approved to reduce the execution of sentences of prominent members of ETA was announced. The Government, through its spokesperson Pilar Alegriaresponded with obvious lies.
La Moncloa hoped to gain political oxygen thanks to the negligent actions of the PP deputies and the excessive actions of the Popular Party, rejected by the victims of terrorism and by many party leaders. Until this Thursday, the Civil Guard report was published, which clearly incriminates who was Sánchez’s right-hand man.
This report, prepared by the UCO (Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard), will lead to the indictment of Ábalos and breaks down the strategy of Moncloa and the PSOE based on the use of the former minister as a firewall for the case. That is to say, put an end to his responsibility by accelerating, for example, his expulsion from the party and the parliamentary group, or by preparing an audit of his time at the Ministry of Transport. Minister Torres himself spoke this Thursday at Moncloa about expulsion of Ábalos from the party.
But now, in addition to recovering the question of saving Globalia, the Civil Guard is resurrecting the Delcy affair and extends the shadow of corruption at the Ministry of the Interior.
The UCO that Sánchez supports
In the first case, the revelations come at a time of turbulence in relations with Venezuela, with José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as mediator with the government of this country and with Delcy Rodríguez herself as interlocutor of Spain at the embassy in Caracas, to grant asylum to the opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez.
The UCO report speaks of obscure affairs with the government of Venezuela, with the active participation of Ábalos and Aldama. It is assumed that the former president does not know that his interlocutors in the Venezuelan government are dealing with the conspiracy.
Regarding the Civil Guard, the report seriously tarnishes this institution. It is said that the former Director General of the Corps, Leonard Marcos, He could have been the one who informed those involved of the investigation against them. Marcos surprisingly left office in September, after being there for just over a year, and with the only explanation of “personal reasons.”
This dismissal or resignation is now suspect, as are the successive and unexplained changes within this general management.
Furthermore, the report once again focuses on when Sánchez decided to sack Ábalos by surprise in 2021. There was never an explanation from either of them and still leaves a once unresolved is the question of whether the president fired him. when he learned of some of the adventures of his former right-hand man, although he kept him as his deputy.
At the top of the PSOE and the government, there were suspicions based on the activities of Koldo Garciastrange advisor and executive arm of Ábalos, then all-powerful.
The government does not even have the possibility of questioning the credibility of the UCO, because until Monday Moncloa and Sánchez himself used two reports from this department of the Civil Guard to exonerate Begoña Gómez. This path seems closed to arguments.
The argument of “A clean government” and without corruption that Sánchez has used on several occasions.
