Businessman Víctor de Aldama had an ace up his sleeve. The commission agent of Koldo case He boasted in August 2018 about his relationship with the newly appointed Minister of Transportation José Luis Ábalos, formerly a Mexican businessman, Pedro Miguel Makes Beard. This union leader would later become a senator and currently holds a seat as a deputy for Morena, the party of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The researchers maintain that his role as honorary consul of Oaxaca would have given Aldama the possibility of approaching “at the highest levels of decision-making” of Development, “that is, to Ábalos himself”.
«And remember, brother, the relationship I have with Ábalos, the new Minister of Development of Spain, who is now your new president [López Obrador] put the Spanish train in Mexico and the infrastructure and Ábalos is the Minister of Development. He can sign all that and whatever the country needs for Development, roads, bridges, trains, public transportation, everything it needs,” Aldama wrote to Haces Barba on August 22, 2018 via WhatsApp.
Haces Barba, 59 years old, is a politician, businessman and union leader who belongs to Morena. He is general secretary of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico and was a senator for five months between 2018 and 2019. In his political beginnings he was active in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and held several positions in Mexico City, before giving the move to the national level. Last September he became a deputy. However, there is no evidence that he did business with the plot.
Ábalos was appointed Minister of Transport in June 2018. Aldama met him on August 31 of that year. The man behind the relationship would have been the businessman’s brother, who was the socialist leader’s personal escort. «You have the egg to do things»he told the mask commission agent when Koldo García’s contact was sent to him. After these first contacts, investigators maintain that the businessman responded to their daily requests, aimed at satisfying Ábalos’ needs.
Those needs, according to the documentation to which you have had access THE OBJECTIVEwere transmitted through Aldama’s brother and Koldo García. This situation, fueled by the commission agent’s own interest, would have given rise to “a closer approach to the highest decision-making levels of the Ministry of Transport, that is, to Ábalos himself” according to the reasoned statement sent to the Supreme Court this Wednesday by the judge instructing the Koldo case at the National Court.
The investigation began after the million-dollar awards of masks that Transport made at the beginning of the pandemic in favor of Soluciones de Gestión, a company that Aldama represented. Ábalos doubled the amount of face masks to buy (from four to eight million) in just half an hour after modifying the ministerial order of March 20, 2020according to the authorship prepared by the department directed by Óscar Puente. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard revealed the relationship between the commission agent of the plot and the former minister.
The investigators maintain that there was a general pattern of behavior, whereby Aldama paid Koldo García “on a recurring and periodic basis” a fixed amount of 10,000 euros per month. Thanks to these payments, the businessman benefited from the influence of Ábalos, who “acted for the benefit of Aldama and its companies”. As this newspaper has advanced, as a result of this mediation, the former minister would have enjoyed a villa on the Cádiz coast and another in Marbella (Málaga) without having to pay for them.
Trip to Oaxaca
«The main reason for these considerations would be to maintain Aldama’s access to both Koldo García and Ábalos. for his own benefit and that of third parties directly related to Aldama himself.. Thus, this corrupting action (…) allowed him to ensure the achievement of economic profitestablished in the criminal corporate structure of its partners, also alleged participants in the criminal organization under investigation,” insists the judge investigating the case at the National Court.
The investigators point out that the durability of the criminal organization has been proven by the mask contracts, the rescue of Air Europa, the safe conduct for Venezuelan citizens to enjoy freedom of movement or for obtaining the title of hydrocarbon operator of Villafuel, plot for which Aldama was arrested on October 7 and remains in prison.
Aldama served between 2018 and 2019 as an advisor to Air Europathe company rescued by the Government with 475 million euros in November 2020. The company even commissioned it to recover a debt it had with Venezuela of almost 200 million. As honorary consul of Oaxaca, he mediated the meeting that Ábalos held at the ministerial headquarters on December 12 with the governor of this Mexican region, as this newspaper reported. The leader, who left the PRI to occupy a seat in the Senate with López Obrador’s party, intended to connect Madrid with the tourist bay of Huatulco.
The commission agent of the plot Koldo also accompanied Javier Hidalgo, then CEO of Globalia, parent company of Air Europa, to Oaxaca. The trip occurred in January 2019, three weeks after the governor of that region visited Madrid and met with Ábalos. Aldama was also part of the delegation of the former Minister of Transportation during an official trip to Mexico in February of that same year. The visit served to strengthen the presence of Spanish companies in the Aztec country, where agreements worth 10 billion euros were closed.