Julián Muñoz died this morning at the age of 76 after battling for several months with cancer that he described as “galloping” and that was diagnosed after a fall. The former mayor of Marbella went to the hospital alone, accompanied by his daughter Elia. His relatives visit him, such as Mayte Zaldívar, whom he remarried a few months ago.
He was born in El Arenal (Ávila) on November 24, 1947. He married Mayte Zaldivar in 1974 and they had two daughters Eloisa and Elia. They divorced in 2003, when the mayor at the time began a romantic relationship with the tonadillera Isabel Pantoja, widow of the bullfighter Paquirri. He placed it on the coated paper, which became I know him as “Cachuli”the affectionate nickname that Pantoja gave him.
The relationship broke up in 2009 and both were harassed by the law. Since then and until 2016, Karina Pau had a relationship. A few weeks ago, the news of his marriage to his first wife was announced, Mayte Zaldivar. When illness expelled them, they took refuge again in the affection of their loved ones.
His political career
Muñoz began his political career affiliated with the PSOE before 1991, when he entered politics with Jesús Gil. His weight in Independent Liberal Group He rose over time, having been elected as a councillor in sixth place on the electoral list in 1991, third in 1995 and second in 1999.
In 2002, after the resignation of Jesús Gil, following his involvement in the Camisetas case, Muñoz became mayor of Marbella. He was definitively inaugurated on May 2, 2002. In the elections of May 2003, and after the disqualification of Jesús Gil was ratified by the Supreme Court, Muñoz presented himself as number one and candidate for mayor of the GIL, obtaining the absolute majority.
On August 13 of the same year, Muñoz lost the mayoralty after a motion of censure promoted by a group of seven GIL defectors, with Marisol Yagüe elected as the new mayor.
Judicial penalties
In 2006, his ordeal with justice began. He was arrested in July of that year in the second phase of the Malaya case, the corruption plot that plundered Marbella. During the period of preventive detention, Muñoz has been convicted in several cases for corruption, embezzlement of public funds and prevarication. He was released from prison on October 17, 2008 after nearly two and a half years behind bars.
In 2013, he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and 10 years in prison. disqualification of public performances for prevarication. He was acquitted of the crimes of embezzlement of public funds and subsidiary or alternative fraud. In October of the same year, he was also sentenced by the Provincial Court of Malaga to two years in prison and 16 years of disqualification for the crimes of fraud and prevarication.
During his stay in prison, he accumulated different pathologies that led him to a delicate state of health. The last one was cancer that cost him his life. Due to serious deterioration in his health He initially benefited from the third degree prison regime in August 2015. The decision was annulled by the Malaga court, considering that Muñoz maintains his “capacity to commit a crime” “intact”. On May 6, 2016, he was definitively released from prison to serve the third degree, which ends in 2021.
