The music that was heard a few days ago found its score this Wednesday in the Florida courts. The untouchable Raúl Castro, historic Cuban leader aged 94, brother of the great leader Fidel and former president of the country, was indicted by a grand jury on various charges related to the downing of two planes from the organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, when he was Minister of Defense. Four people died.
The homicide charge against Jonathan Andic has caused deep shock among the staff of Mango, the company founded by his father, Isak Andic, and of which the accused still holds the vice presidency. The fashion firm is cautious and strives to separate the business from the police proceedings. But the seriousness of the facts and the unease of the thousands of Mango workers have forced it to act.
The project that Isak Andic had been developing for years to dedicate part of his millionaire fortune to social causes ended up becoming, according to the judicial investigation, one of the main sources of tension with his son Jonathan. The possibility that the founder of Mango modified his will to leave part of the family fortune to a foundation now appears at the center of the case investigating the death of the businessman in Montserrat in December 2024.
One detail stands out in the investigation into the death of Isak Andic, founder of Mango, during a walk with his son Jonathan in Montserrat in December 2024. It is the trace of the alleged slip that caused what could have been an accidental fall, which has become one of the clues the judge uses to understand that what happened that day was not an accident.
On December 14, 2024, Isak and Jonathan Andic were not alone on the Montserrat mountain. Father and son parked their vehicles in the Collbató parking lot from which the Les Feixades path starts, a slippery but simple trail that connects the Salnitre caves with the Montserrat monastery. After barely ten minutes, the 71-year-old businessman fell into the void and died from the severe injuries of the impact. The son, who was released on Tuesday after posting a bail of one million euros and is accused of homicide, took four minutes to make the first call and it was to his father’s partner, Estefanía Knuth. Two minutes later he alerted 112 to ask for help. After half an hour, two climbers who had been practicing sport in the massif appeared on the trail and approached Jonathan, alerted by his cries of distress, according to sources familiar with the investigation that La Vanguardia has been able to learn.
The United States Department of Homeland Security collaborated with the Spanish police in the money laundering investigation that led to the case opened by the National Court against the former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, according to a department spokesperson, a fact that already appeared in the order of the National Court judge who charged him with allegedly leading a network of influence peddling and money laundering, which represents a new setback for the left-wing Government, already harassed by other corruption scandals.
The Council of Ministers agreed to the rescue of the airline Plus Ultra in March 2021 for an amount of 53 million euros, considering it a “strategic” company. That rescue may have been carried out outside the law. The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama believes that the airline did not meet the requirements established in the European regulations to be rescued.
The bailout granted during the pandemic by the state holding company SEPI to Plus Ultra as part of the support for strategic companies in trouble is at the center of the plot surrounding José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero investigated by judge José Luis Calama. According to the judge, the executives of this small airline tried to obtain the aid of 53 million granted by SEPI through “mechanisms outside the legally established channels,” either through the mediation of José Luis Ábalos or Zapatero himself, which was the channel used. The former Prime Minister played a “predominant role” and “allowed Plus Ultra to achieve the pursued objectives.” How did this SEPI aid program work? Why was it so decisive for many companies and so controversial in some cases?
The car of instructor José Luis Calama reconstructs through messages from those investigated in the Plus Ultra case how the airline company strove during the pandemic to access public funds (“we need to get the aid”) through political means (“we contacted Ábalos,” “the bridge with ZP has just been made”) in exchange for payments to whoever agreed to it (“We are going to screw even if we have to pay a little”). These conversations have been obtained by the National Court thanks to the international collaboration of the United States agency Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which extracted them from the phone of the also investigated Rodolfo Reyes, Venezuelan partner of the airline.
“Where does lobbying end and where does influence peddling begin?”. Gabriel Rufián brought to the Congress of Deputies this Wednesday one of those questions that have hovered over Spanish politics for years and that the Zapatero case has brought back to the forefront. The difficulty in delineating the boundary between legitimate influence and opaque practices. An activity that in Spain continues to operate in a wide gray area. The question, addressed to Pedro Sánchez during the control session, was not only seeking a response from the Prime Minister but also aimed to highlight one of the major regulatory gaps in the Spanish political system. Therefore, the Prime Minister chose to respond by referring to the lobbying law that Congress has been processing for months.