The investigation of the so-called Koldo plot has reopened doubts about an old episode for which completely convincing explanations were never given. On January 20, 2020, the Vice President of the Venezuelan Government, Delcy Rodríguez, landed for a few hours at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, contravening the order of the European Union by being prohibited from entering the Schengen area. Then it was learned that the person who received it was José Luis Ábalos, Minister of Transport and number three of the PSOE at that time. Now, as a result of the judicial case opened against Koldo García, former advisor to Ábalos, it has become known that he was also present that night, as was one of the businessmen of the plot, who acted as a link between the ministry and the recipient of 56 million euros in contracts during the pandemic.
After analyzing the summary prepared in the National Court, new questions arise as to why Rodríguez came, why Ábalos received her or why Víctor de Aldama was at the Barajas airport that night. Judicially, attempts to open a criminal case regarding these events have not been fruitful. The Supreme Court already said that Ábalos had not committed any criminal offense. The High Court recognized that non-compliance with the foreign policy decisions of the European Union is subject to political control, not criminal responsibility, in reference to the sanctions and the ban on transit granted by the EU to Venezuela.
The first clue was put on the table by the Tax Agency inspector who opened a file with Management Solutions (SG), the company at the center of the plot, recipient of the investigated contracts. In his report he investigated the reasons why Aldama, president of Zamora CF and businessman, had received million-dollar commissions from SG. During the inspection, he took a statement from him, and he assured that he had carried out intermediation work, for example, with the airlines to achieve an affordable price on the flights to bring the masks from China. In the report dedicated to Aldama, the inspector from the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF) expressed his “surprise” because this businessman had been in Barajas “on the same day as the so-called Delcygate.”
Aldama explained that he had a previous professional relationship with Air Europa because they hired him to act as an advisor to try to recover 200 million dollars that the Venezuelan Government owed him from the sale of tickets. As Aldama himself explained to the inspector, due to economic reasons, Air Europa could not remove these funds from Venezuela either physically or electronically. Aldama was going to help them with this. The question that now arises is whether his presence at the airport the day Delcy Rodríguez landed for a few hours as a stopover to travel to Turkey had something to do with this management. The airline assures that the advisory work did not come to fruition and, therefore, Aldama was not paid the five million dollars that were included as a commission if the operation were successful.
The next clue is the conversation between the head of SG, Iñigo Rotaeche, and Juan Carlos Cueto, a businessman who according to investigators would be the real beneficiary of the company, accused of bribery in Angola. As a result of the tax inspection opened by the company’s profits thanks to public funds allocated in the pandemic, both had conversations, intervened by agents from the central operational unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. The two feared what Aldama might reveal during the inspection if they called him to testify. “They will ask him about everyone, about me, about Angola, about Ábalos, about the president of the Government, about the Minister of Defense, about Delcy, about the suitcases… about everything.”
When the Venezuelan minister’s scandal broke, it was said that Rodríguez got off the plane with several suitcases. No court has wanted to investigate it, so today the veracity of this statement is not proven. However, these two people, close to Koldo García as has been confirmed in the investigation, did make reference to the suitcases.
More research data. What is known is that Aldama, Rotaeche and Cueto set up a kind of covert UTE to contract with the Ministry of Transport – through Adif and State Ports –, in addition to the Ministry of the Interior and the Canarian health services and Balearic. Their link in the ministry would be Koldo, who, according to the investigation, would have received bribes in exchange for introducing them to the ministry.
Aldama had his businesses, and his relationship with Koldo was clear, according to several testimonies. The then president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera, told the agents that she saw this businessman on several occasions meeting with Ábalos’ advisor in the ministry. Furthermore, from several conversations intercepted by WhatsApp with this businessman – with several of his partners – it is clear how he had cash in Latin America. One of the countries to which they traveled regularly was the Dominican Republic. In an exchange of messages between Aldama and his partner, they explained how they were organizing for Joseba García, Koldo’s brother, to go there. “Let’s see what we can give him,” they reflected.