And the deals would have been carried out in Latin America, where the Spanish socialist has maintained close relations with some countries, through China in some cases, in recent years. And in these Venezuela would be a crucial axis.
The judge of the National Court, José Luis Calama, who began the criminal proceedings against Rodríguez Zapatero for money laundering in the rescue of the Plus Ultra airline, has expanded his investigation to high-level international operations, based on reports from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF), of the National Police.
According to reports, there would be evidence of the former president’s influence in businesses and projects related to gold, rare earths such as nickel and coltan, and also oil with China and Venezuela.
The Calama investigation, based on the Plus Ultra case, covers 40 companies, more than 60 people involved, and 174 transfers detected between 2020 and 2025 for about 2.6 million euros, which involve the former president, indicates a balance made by Spanish media.
This makes Rodríguez Zapatero the first former Spanish president (2004 and 2011) to be under suspicion for serious charges of criminal operation, influence peddling and falsification of documentation, in an investigation that also threatens to involve the government of Pedro Sánchez, involved in unprecedented pressure.
Among the people under investigation are Julio Martínez Martínez, main operator of Rodríguez Zapatero, arrested in December 2025, and in whose office documentation was seized; as well as businessmen of Chinese and Venezuelan nationality.
Rodríguez Zapatero in the golden light
The former Spanish president, who traveled to Caracas at the request of the Venezuelan opposition, with the support of Unasur, in 2016 to be a mediator with Chavismo, in the midst of the political conflict, has since become a frequent visitor and sympathizer of Chavismo.
In this context, he joined left-wing political leaders from Latin America, such as the Puebla Group, marked by the Venezuelan model.
The dark operations began six years later.
According to information from the UDEF, in 2021 a criminal network began to operate through the relationship between Martínez Martínez and Domingo Amaro Chacón, one of the two Venezuelan brothers under investigation for money laundering, in search of gold.
In that year, in which the alleged rescue of Plus Ultra occurred, Amaro Chacón and his brother Guillermo, responsible for the company Ingeniería Prospectiva, began to work with the “front man” of Rodríguez Zapatero, operator of the company Comunicación Relevante SL, on various gold projects in connection with the company Minerven attached to the Ministry of Mines of Venezuela.
Amaro Chacón’s company fell under judicial suspicion as an “instrumental” company for money laundering, as it mobilized 2.5 million euros in five years without having employees or workers, and had access to the Chavista elite.
In addition, the UDEF detected during the judicial investigation a conversation between Martínez and Amaro Chacón that revealed gold and money laundering negotiations.
The commercial relationship between Domingo Amaro Chacón and Julio Martínez, through the “conversation intervened between the two, refers to other projects, such as those of ‘Egipcio’ (Minerven Project and La Tortuga Project), the plans of ‘Los del Desierto’ (Officialize the diplomatic relationship with the opening of the UAE embassy in Venezuela and Marketing of Amarillo, in alleged reference to gold) and the Western Atlas Resources project (Loma de Nickel)”, as quoted by a Spanish media.
Also mentioned were Western Atlas Resources, a mining company in Venezuela, and the Loma de Níquel project, related to the iron and nickel deposit in locations in the center of the country.
A gift mine
Rodríguez Zapatero and his network would also be related to the Colombia Mine, an important gold reserve located in the Orinoco Mining Arc in Bolívar, in southern Venezuela, the UDEF report maintains based on documents found in the office of its operator.
These mention the “purchase of 60,000 T” (tons) of “remet”. This “corresponds to the abbreviated name of Reduced Metallization, used for pre-reduced material that is not briquetted and, generally, of low metallization, coming from a direct reduction process,” explained the Police Unit when referring to gold.
The “Mina Colombia” is not a clandestine deposit in the Mining Arc, clarified the organization SOS Orinoco, specialized in environmental defense, in reference to the case.
“It was the largest technical exploitation of the Venezuelan State, operated by @Minerven_CA for decades. It is unlikely that the regime has delivered shares of a public company or of what they call a formal “commercial alliance” to Zapatero,” he said in a public note.
Regarding the alleged transfer of the Colombia Mine to Rodríguez Zapatero, the alleged gift that Maduro gave him, there is no record of an official date; It only has mentions of the then Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba in 2020 and of Maduro’s former Intelligence Chief, Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal before the Spanish National Court when he was arrested in 2021.
“The real modus operandi of these schemes is production allocation. The regime simply labels the yield or physical gold (unrefined gold called “dore”) extracted from a state mine to pay for “favors received” and international lobbying by its allies or accomplices,” the organization noted.
In any case, Martínez’s specific contacts with Silva for gold businesses date back to mid-2025, months before his arrest within the framework of the Plus Ultra investigation, according to the information.
Regarding the negotiation, Martínez mentioned in one of his seized agendas a person with the initials HS who, according to information, points to Héctor Silva, Maduro’s Minister of Mines and ratified by Delcy Rodríguez who designated him “godfather of the Guayana Region.”
The ratification, in the midst of the cabinet changes of the head of the country since last January, has an explanation: the brothers Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez are close friends of Rodríguez Zapatero since their first visits to Caracas, as ratified by the opposition.
China, a crucial relationship
The Amaro Chacón brothers, linked to the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), were also key to the oil business and relations with China, a powerful Asian country that seeks to control the trade of crude oil and the so-called rare earths in Latin America.
Actions by the National Police unit point to both Venezuelans as promoters of the Venezuelan crude oil business with that country. “The Chinese are ready to buy ships,” Domingo Amaro reportedly told Martínez on that occasion, according to an excerpt of the intercepted conversation.
The relationship with China would have caused a number of trips by Rodríguez Zapatero to hold meetings with senior leaders of the Communist Party, while dealing with Venezuelan crude oil, according to the investigation.
Even Rodríguez Zapatero received Wu Zhengping, a senior Chinese trade official, “discreetly” in his PSOE office, which was reported in a bulletin of the EU-China Economic Cooperation and Development Council, one of the lobbies directed by the former president, it was reported. One more evidence in the investigation of the Spanish judge.
Latin America and the negotiated
So far, investigations into corruption and money laundering involving Rodríguez Zapatero also reveal connections in Brazil through communication companies.
The network of the former Spanish president would have served as a link to the Maduro regime to hire digital communication and disinformation companies in that country to reinforce its authoritarian interests.
According to the results of investigations by the Tax Agency contained in the investigation, the company Venqis, founded in 2017 and based in Panama; Like their legal representative, the Brazilian businessman André Golabek, they would have created an app at the service of the Venezuelan repression unleashed against dissidents through online complaints.
This Brazilian commercial company would also have been hired through Rodríguez Zapatero’s network to spread false information in other countries in the region, but so far they have not been identified.
In this context, the Spanish justice system also detected that the company Whathefav, managed by Alba and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa, daughters of Rodríguez Zapatero and which functioned as an advertising agency, received more than 100,000 euros between 2023 and 2024, from Venqis, which is linked to applications from the Venezuelan ruling party, under suspicion of money laundering.
