Former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos faces an impending indictment for the Koldo affair. But what really put Ábalos in the spotlight was Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s trip to Spain and her stop in Barajas. This has been debated again since a report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) revealed that the former minister lied in the LaSexta El Objective program, when He told Ana Pastor how he learned of this visit.
The report states that Ábalos was aware of the Venezuelan vice president’s trip to Spain. But at the time, the former minister came to assure that He had no meeting with Delcy Rodríguezstressing that he learned of his trip from the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
“He told me that he had received information that the vice president of Venezuela was traveling on this plane and that I had to make sure he didn’t get in.“, he explained at the time. A lie they have repeated since the news broke. There have been several versions of what this trip was, of what the government knew and did not know. This Friday The president of the government himself, Pedro Sánchez, acknowledged that Ábalos had informed him of his intention to meet Delcy in Spain.: “Former Minister Ábalos informed me of this private visit.”
Ábalos was proud of his management
However, Sánchez assured that the government blocked her from entering the country when she learned that the Venezuelan vice president had prohibited from entering the Schengen area. “We acted when it was confirmed that there were individual sanctions“, he detailed. In addition, he confirmed the police report, stressing that he had been warned three days previously by a message from the former minister.
“The vice president of Venezuela is coming privately on Monday and wants to see me discreetly,” Ábalos said in a conversation leaked by the OCU. Ábalos justified the meeting to discuss with Rodríguez the interests of Spanish companies in Venezuela and Sánchez responded with a brief “ok”“. “I saw it says ‘good’. “Good” is a fairly standard answer,” defended the current Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente.
However, what was revealed does not correspond to the first explanations given by Ábalos, when he said that was informed at the last minute that Rodríguez was on the plane for Minister Marlaska. At that time, the President of the Government defended the former minister: “Mr. Ábalos did his duty to it was to avoid a diplomatic crisis.”
Even Ábalos puffed out his chest in the Congress of Deputies, saying he had done his job and had been applauded by all government groups. “This is what I think I have modestly achieved, namely that this lady did not enter Schengen territory: achieved!”, he declared and even then, the PP accused him of lie and ask for resignation.
