At the end of the reports from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, the investigators reach the “conclusion” that there is “sufficient evidence” to place José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the head of an organized network of influence peddling in favor of clients – such as Plus Ultra – who would pay, through a corporate environment controlled by his partner, the former Prime Minister.
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But to reach those final pages of the reports delivered to the National Court, the agents mainly rely on conversations between third parties to identify the “invisible leadership” of the former socialist leader. But also on references to meetings (at the Ministry of Transport), processing of invoices, or lists of potential clients. In total, in the two police reports, he is referenced 210 times.
The content of the Venezuelan Rodolfo Reyes’ phone, investigated by the United States, is key. From there, the first conversations about the start of the efforts to get the airline Plus Ultra to access the bailout are extracted, which was finally achieved for 53 million euros. At the end of March, in the midst of the pandemic, Reyes suggests to the company’s founder, Julio Martínez Sola, that “Delcy call Ábalos. Or someone like Zapatero.” He also asks Ramón Gordils, a Venezuelan government diplomat, if he thought it was possible to “ask Zapatero for help [regarding] the Plus Ultra political lobby issue.” To which he replies, “go through the formal route. And I’ll find a way to reach Zapatero.”
That message from Gordils is in turn forwarded to Martínez Sola. Weeks later, he already informs the Plus Ultra leadership that “the bridge with ZP has just been made. Manuel Fajardo is ZP’s man in Venezuela.” Fajardo is the son of a socialist senator, a friend of the former head of government. That same day, the founder of Plus Ultra says that “Zapatero calls him,” joking about his resemblance to “Mr. Bean.” “He’s the same,” he mocks. That call lasted 11 minutes, according to the investigators.
Mentions of ZP increasing
In mid-May 2020, Fajardo tells Martínez Sola that “the friend,” whom the UDEF identifies as the former secretary general of the PSOE, asks “how the guarantees are going,” necessary for the airline to access the bailout with public money. The senator’s son adds that “in the friend’s team” are himself and Julio Martínez. In the subsequent exchanges of conversations, references to Zapatero increase.
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In the last half of May, those pointed out by the UDEF talk about “catching up on the Zapatero issue,” ask if “you will be in the conversation with Zapatero,” or worry about “how the Zapatero issue is going.” It is at those same dates when Plus Ultra executives talk directly about the “Zapatero Group.”
“Yes, bro. Our buddy Zapatero is behind it,” writes Reyes after a meeting with the Secretary of State for Transport. After submitting the bailout request to SEPI, the airline’s number two, Roberto Roselli, states in a group chat “well now it’s time to put pressure on Zapa.” He also writes in another chat that “The Gowair people know everything we do, even that Zapa is our contact.”
After starting the bailout bureaucracy, those involved fear “a leak” of their “conversations with ZP.” It is September and the group doubts “if it will be good for Zapatero to talk to someone from SEPI” to speed up the procedures. Martínez Sola is clear that what he “wants” is “for Zapatero to talk to SEPI.”
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Outside Spain, the UDEF also points to possible tentacles of the network in Venezuela related to the airline bailout. The director of Plus Ultra reported on January 29, 2021, that “tomorrow Zapatero intervenes directly… he will try to get us the [flight] permits without the embassy’s intervention. “Camino was with ZP today. He told him everything is going smoothly,” Reyes assures in a WhatsApp chat.
But references to the former head of the PSOE government are not limited to the conversations provided by the United States to the National Police. The UDEF has also found a direct chat between Zapatero and Julio Martínez where the former sends him a list of clients of Análisis Relevante, the alleged intermediary company through which the alleged kickbacks would pass before ending up in the accounts of the former president, or his daughters.
A contact saved as “Z” in Martínez’s phone sends him a message on July 31, 2021, “in time and form. Successful management” after Plus Ultra flights from Madrid to Caracas were approved, after hundreds of clients who bought fake tickets for a route that was not authorized were left stranded at the airport. The UDEF identifies that contact as Rodríguez Zapatero.
“Following instructions from José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero”
The former leader also appears cited in the report when a director of the Ministry of Transport during José Luis Ábalos’ tenure warns advisor Koldo García that the former president is meeting with the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, José Luis Escrivá – who has denied the meeting after this detail of the case became known -.
The company needed to settle its outstanding debt to access public funds and therefore sought a loan. This is stated in a letter, which is in the case file, to Banco Santander in which Plus Ultra executives state that they are addressing the entity “following instructions from José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero” to request documents for the bailout.
For the UDEF, a lunch that would have taken place between Zapatero and Ábalos, scheduled for March 15, 2021, is also relevant, according to the agenda that the investigators extracted from the former advisor of the former Minister of Transport. That meeting would have been convened just six days after the Council of Ministers definitively approved the bailout.
The investigators emphasize the offshore company created in Dubai “following the instructions of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero,” with the alleged involvement of his secretary Gertrudis Alcázar, whose phone was seized by the UDEF last week, a key element in the course of the investigation. Another reference to Zapatero is when the police identify Julio Martínez as “the boss’s bank,” or frontman, of the former Prime Minister.
