Angel Contreras He was dismissed this Friday from his position as president of Adif, just ten months after taking office, as first published by EL ESPAÑOL. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced it this morning, although the initial plan was to make it official next Monday.
Contreras assumed the presidency of the Adif in November 2023 to replace María Luisa Domínguez. Ministerial sources assure that His dismissal has nothing to do with it Koldo casesince he did not hold this position at the time of the events, but did so during a restructuring planned by Óscar Puente for the public entity.
The chaos that exists on the roadsThe accumulated delays and the images of hundreds of people gathered in stations such as Sants, Atocha or Chamartín have exhausted the patience of the minister who has decided to put himself on the table. In fact, Contreras was not the first to leave, and it does not seem that he will be the last to do so either.
However, the image of the president so far is very degraded. Not only because of the railway problems; also because of the images that could be seen of him with Koldo García Izaguirre in La Chalana that raised doubts about his role.
Who is Angel Contreras?
Ángel Contreras is a civil engineer from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
He had been with Adif since 2011, when he joined Ineco to take up the position of technician in the management of railway infrastructure works. In 2012, he was promoted to head of investment coordination.
Three years later, in 2015, he was appointed head of the Eastern Infrastructure Area. In 2018, with the arrival of José Luis Ábalos at the Ministry, he was promoted to Director General of Conservation and Maintenance. He held this position until his appointment to the presidency in 2023.
Why is there rail chaos?
Transports considers that the time has come to come to the table to end the railway chaos in which Adif has been mired in recent months. Delays and cancellations on the various high-speed lines have been a constant due to problems in the infrastructure of the railway manager.
This Friday in Atocha, delays of up to four hours were recorded on some routes due to problems related to the Adif. But they are not the only ones. In Barcelona, the derailment of a Euromed train also caused the blocking of medium and high-speed trains in Catalonia for a few hours.
These are just some examples of the breakdowns and congestion observed in recent months in the stations and tracks of the Adif. The theft of copper in Rodalíes, in Catalonia, on the eve of the Catalan elections, was also notorious. And what about the problems at Chamartín station. Undergoing renovation and expansion works, images of people waiting for hours have been the general trend.
Added to all this are the problems that Renfe has had with the delivery of the Talgo trains of the April 106 series, which run in Galicia. Received before the summer, during the hottest months, it was common to find breakdowns in these vehicles. In fact, Minister Puente went so far as to demand that the manufacturer fire the person responsible for maintenance.
What does it have to do with the Koldo case?
Angel Contreras appears in the summary of the Koldo case because he met twice with the former advisor of José Luis Ábalos at the seafood restaurant La Chalana. The first meeting took place on November 2, 2023 at 4:45 p.m.
The second meeting took place on December 5, 2023, when Contreras was appointed president of Adif. The former president of the state-owned company is not under investigation and has no responsibility for the purchase of masks from the company Soluciones de Gestión of the commissioner Víctor de Aldama.
Contreras also met with José Luis Ábalos on January 10, 2023 in La Chalana, the night the Civil Guard photographed the former minister in said seafood restaurant.
The UCO appoints Ángel Contreras in an emergency tender for the AVE works on the Monforte de Lemos-Lugo section. The wiretaps reveal that the company Obras Públicas y Regadíos SA had turned to Koldo García to “exert its influence” on the president of Adif.
Businessman Daniel Fernández, in a call intercepted by the Civil Guard, refers to Contreras: “Ágel knows that he took 600,000 euros from us for this work and he should help us, but you know…”.
At the time of the events that gave rise to the investigation, the agents emphasize, Contreras was general director of Conservation and Maintenance of the Adif.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport, consulted by EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia, have minimized the information collected and interpreted by the UCO. Óscar Puente’s department considered that the accusations against Ángel Contreras Martín are “incoherent” and based on conjecture. In fact, they have stated that the report “says nothing.”
What did you explain in the Senate committee?
Angel Contreras appeared before the Senate inquiry committee on the Koldo case June 4th.
The then president of Adif claimed to have a “social” relationship with Koldo García and denied that there had been rigged contracts within the public entity.
Contreras acknowledged, in turn, meetings with former minister José Luis Ábalos, also following his departure from Development.
“I am running because they called me, but I have never rigged any type of contract,” the former president of ADIF defended himself.
Regarding the company Obras Públicas y Regadíos SA, he acknowledged knowing “Daniel Fernández and the vast majority of the managers and businessmen of the companies we hire.”
Following the conversations intercepted by the UCO between Koldo García and Daniel Fernández, Contreras defended that he could not know what third parties were saying about him, although he wanted to clarify that they never spoke to him about any reward.
