A book delves into the burrow of the Cooperation case: "Blasco operated with impunity"

The all-powerful Valencian politician Rafael Blasco, minister with the PSPV governments and reborn as one of the most relevant figures of the Valencian PP in the time of Francisco Camps, ended up in prison convicted of the so-called Cooperation case; a plot hatched from the Ministry of Solidarity that led to the diversion of nearly five million destined for cooperation projects in developing countries. Part of the money destined for countries like the Dominican Republic, Haiti or Equatorial Guinea was spent on the purchase of luxury yachts and apartments in Miami.

The Valencian journalist and documentalist Sergi Tarín presents his book La Madriguera (Alfons el Magnanim) this afternoon at the Fan Set bookstore in Center Octubre, a meticulous investigation that analyzes the modus operandi of the plot, pruning the summary of the case and analyzing the different results of the judgments. “The map of corruption in the Blasco case is very eloquent: 27 projects in 11 countries. 11.86 million were granted, of which 7.34 were deposited and 4.86 million were diverted, 66.2% of the money deposited”, explains the author.

In his investigative work, Tarín traveled to the provinces of Monte Plata and Espaillat (Dominican Republic), where he saw first-hand the ravages of the plot in these already mistreated populations. Tarín talks to La Vanguardia the day before presenting his work, a Josep Torrent Investigative Journalism scholarship.

Why the title ‘The Burrow’?

The book revolves around the figure of the great character that is Blasco, whom the members of the plot refer to as the rabbit or even Roger Rabbit. I play with that idea with all the burrows that Blasco has been creating during all his stages in Valencian politics to accumulate power for himself and his followers. He was a structure within the structure itself, he had created his own lair within the PP.

What was the modus operandi of the plot?

The key person in the network was Augusto Tauroni, Blasco’s head businessman throughout his career in the PP. Tauroni created the Fundación Solidaria Entre Pueblos -which later became known as Hemisferio- with the intention of attracting small NGOs with no track record in the world of cooperation and with a presidential structure to which he promised that, if they went hand in hand, they would play in the Champions League of cooperation. With these NGOs, he applied for projects that the Department of Blasco put out and obtained very juicy public subsidies; yes, Tauroni’s condition was to keep 50%.

And how did you access the aid?

There was a second step to the plot. The head of the Cooperation area, Marc Llinares, laundered, manipulated and raised the notes of these NGOs. In addition, to shield the procedure, an external evaluator was hired to validate the entire process.

You have traveled to the Dominican Republic, the country where, proportionally, more projects were carried out (7 between 2009 and 2011) and more money was diverted (almost a million of the two in which they were valued were lost). What did you find there?

I went to check what had been done, because the defendants in the trial said that the money had been invested. In the Dominican Republic, with a lot of corruption, the defrauded figures seemed little to them, but the truth is that practically nothing was left standing than expected. Materials did arrive to build greenhouses, many people got excited and left their homes trusting in those projects, but they did not have any production. They had high hopes and the disappointment was very great. The seeds did not arrive, nor did the pesticides or insecticides. It was big iron and pieces of plastic in the middle of the jungle. In addition, all these projects served local politicians to win votes. On the other hand, the people were very resentful with the Valencian cooperation.

In the book he emphasizes the disparate result of the two sentences that have been produced around this case, why?

The first ruling was extremely forceful, both for the ringleaders of the plot and for people secondary to it. We were living in a moment of economic crisis and corruption and they all fell. Blasco was the first great politician to receive an exemplary sentence. On the other hand, in the second trial, the bar of demand was lowered and minimum agreements were reached that were criticized by the Generalitat Valenciana Attorney’s Office and by the private prosecution. I was covering the trial and I perceived a very lazy attitude, not even the amount of civil liability was set for the convicted. Times had changed and at that time the sentences came out with agreements between the prosecution and the accused.

Why was it not detected earlier? No one noticed?

It is strange, since from the inside out it was known. There was a technical commission that confronted Blasco for the evaluation of the projects and the aid. The truth is that it is surprising that the issue will take so long to leak to the media. Meanwhile, Blasco and the plot operated with total impunity.