Jéssica Rodríguez, former partner of José Luis Ábalos, accompanied the then minister on 13 official trips “national and abroad” out of the 293 registered by the head of Transport, according to the statement this morning by Ana María Aranda, Ábalos’s former secretary, in the trial being held before the Supreme Court against the former socialist minister, his former advisor Koldo García, and the commission agent Víctor de Aldama.
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The expenses for these trips of Ábalos’s companion were paid by Koldo García. “Koldo gave me a credit card and I paid with it at El Corte Inglés, which was our travel agency,” recounted the witness, who started working at the Ministry with Ábalos, whom she met in Congress when she was an employee of the PSOE parliamentary group and he was a deputy. “Jéssica Rodríguez’s trips were never paid for with public money,” she maintained.
Aranda also explained, in response to questions from the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution, that during the pandemic she filled out “safe-conducts” in the name of some people indicated to her by Koldo García. She did not find it strange because “Koldo was the minister’s advisor and that was part of his job.” The purpose of these safe-conducts was for their bearers to be able to bypass confinement to meet with the minister. However, Aranda explained that she does not know if these meetings took place and added that she signed some of these certificates without filling in the name of the holder.
Furthermore, Ábalos’s former secretary supported the statement of other witnesses who declared last week that the commission agent Aldama moved around the Ministry as if he owned the place. According to her account, Aldama frequently visited Koldo in the ministerial offices without having to go through the usual visitor filters and “went up in the minister’s elevator.”
Aranda also recalled that “Aldama was in three official meetings at the Ministry. The first with the governor of Oaxaca (Mexico) and the other two with the CEO of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo.” Hidalgo, who owned Air Europa, will testify in this afternoon’s session.
This morning it was also the turn of another secretary, Aldama’s secretary, Piedad Losada, to testify as a witness. As she is under investigation in a case related to this Mascarillas case, she invoked her right not to testify. However, she did explain a few things.
She recounted that on one occasion, “Koldo called my mobile and told me ‘I’ll pass you to José Luis’. The minister got on and spoke to me about a problem he had with a neighbor in his usual home in Valencia and asked me to help him.” Losada drafted a report “on the usucaption” supposedly of that house, although after this statement she clammed up and refused to give more details.
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Losada also acknowledged that she was in charge of renting a chalet with an option to buy in La Alcaidesa (Cádiz) at the request of Aldama and Claudio Rivas, owner of Villafuel. Several witnesses have stated in previous sessions that this house in Cádiz would allegedly be the payment from the Villafuel plot to Ábalos for his efforts to obtain a license for this company to operate in the hydrocarbon market.
According to investigations and previous statements, the plot would have arranged a meeting for Rivas with the Ministry of Industry. Juan Ignacio Díaz Bidart, former chief of staff of the then minister, Reyes Maroto, also testified today and acknowledged a meeting with Rivas and his team that took place at Koldo’s request on December 28, 2020.
Díaz Bidart also explained that Maroto met with Aldama on one occasion, but ruled out that it was about the Villafuel license issue. According to him, that meeting focused on organizing a concert. Maroto has always denied knowing Aldama.
The pre-trial investigation indicates that the plot allegedly took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to buy masks from the company Soluciones de Gestión in exchange for commissions. So far, it has been confirmed that the Ministry of Transport bought thirteen million masks from this company through Puertos del Estado and Adif urgently and without competition from other companies, as the state of alarm situation allowed.
The Ministry of Interior also bought masks from Soluciones de Gestión. Rafael Pérez, Secretary of State for Interior, acknowledged the contracts with this company in his statement this morning, but assured that the Interior, which “was in great need of masks for police officers and the Civil Guard,” also “contracted with other companies.” He said he learned about Soluciones de Gestión from Koldo García, but that the latter “never pressured” them to buy masks from this company.
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