The heads of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard today ratified all the reports they have prepared regarding the corruption plot that revolved around former Minister of Transport and PSOE Secretary General José Luis Ábalos. They did not hesitate for a minute. Although businessman Víctor de Aldama was the corruptor, the one who had the money, and therefore the one who gave orders, none of this could have happened without Ábalos. “Without the minister, they would not have been able to carry out any of the operations,” explained Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas.
The former socialist’s lawyer tried to prevent the head of the UCO and one of his men – who testified jointly – from being able to explicitly state Ábalos’ exact role in the corruption plot being prosecuted. And so he asked: “what does the minister do according to you?” his defense asked.
“What does the minister do? The biggest thing,” Balas retorted. “He is the one who opens businesses, the one who has the capacity to take Aldama and his partners to places they cannot go themselves, he is a qualified member of the organization and that is why he charges what he charges,” the Civil Guard commander retorted.
However, the agents did not downplay Aldama’s role, who in the trial is trying to get the lightest possible sentence by admitting that he paid the former minister and his former advisor Koldo García in exchange for contracts and contacts with other administrations, claims that Ábalos and his right-hand man deny.
Balas and his colleague highlighted the minister’s usefulness to the criminal organization because he provided them with “total access to high authorities.” And an example was when Ábalos sent a message to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to inform him that the Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, would make a stop in Madrid.
The UCO’s thesis is that this trip was not self-serving, nor promoted by Ábalos, but rather that it was Aldama who requested that Rodríguez be allowed to land in Spain despite the European restrictions on her.
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For all these reasons, the businessman paid Koldo García and Ábalos 10,000 euros a month, and these payments occurred at least until September 2022, a year after he left his position as minister.
Without being able to clarify why they continued to collect payments after leaving public office, one theory is that they were previous pending payments broken down. The money was handed over to Koldo García as the “transmission belt” with Ábalos. According to the agents, in Aldama’s notes, payments to Koldo appeared under “fixed expenses.”
“They had very important access at all levels”
Lieutenant Colonel of the UCO
However, they acknowledge that something happened in that relationship and from a certain point, although they continued to collect payments, Koldo’s brother, Joseba García, took over. According to the UCO, from 2020 to 2022, Joseba deposited 292,000 euros in cash into his bank accounts. He then sent transfers to his brother, and Koldo García was the one who managed “Ábalos’ assets.”
For the UCO, with Ábalos’ connivance, the organization managed to have a “great capacity to permeate different administrations or different ministries.” And to explain this penetration capacity, the investigators present another example; the rescue of Air Europa. The Civil Guard believes that Ábalos pulled certain strings, drafting a press release that validated the loan to the airline, because Aldama asked him to. The businessman was an advisor to the company, hired by Javier Hildago himself, and needed some gesture from the Government in favor of the rescue. “They had very important access at all levels,” they stressed.
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