First, two senior managers of Plus Ultra, the airline that received 53 million euros in public aid after the pandemic in 2020, president Julio Martínez Sola and financial director Roberto Roselli, assured that former Prime Minister Zapatero played a role beyond that of an external consultant.
Later, the businessman and consultant Julio Martínez Martínez, who was hired by Zapatero, sends a similar letter to the judge and then declares that the former president led the process and that he agreed on a 1% commission for public aid, but said that he is unaware of the efforts that the former president carried out or who he spoke to, which, for the moment, does not directly point to any member of Pedro Sánchez’s administration.
The most relevant thing here is that the witnesses have taken the first step to place all responsibility for the activity on Rodríguez Zapatero.
According to the press in Spain, Martínez Martínez’s statement indicates that Zapatero participated first in the efforts to try to obtain bank financing and then in achieving public aid. In addition to the monthly fees of 5,000 euros agreed upon, both parties agreed to a commission of 1% of the 53 million euros of public aid granted, which is equivalent to more than half a million each.
In fact, according to the witness, 530,000 euros were paid through three companies to avoid making the payment directly to Zapatero, and 69,000 euros were paid in first class plane tickets.
In this way, the three businessmen change their tactics and take the initiative to cooperate with the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama, although they assure that they did not have “reliable evidence of the specific actions carried out (by the former president of the Government) to influence or favor the granting of the rescue to Plus Ultra by the SEPI (State Society of Industrial Participations)” and for which they allegedly charged an illegal commission of more than half a million euros.
Both statements, very similar, confirm a good part of the report from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) that served Judge Calama to charge Rodríguez Zapatero in the case for leading “an organized and stable structure oriented to the illicit exercise of influence.”
The Spanish press reports that the president of Plus Ultra states that the first contact he had with former President Zapatero was through the Venezuelan businessman Manuel Fajardo, considered Zapatero’s man in this South American country. According to the statement, Fajardo told him that “the former president of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, could help him” to obtain financing to save the airline from the crisis.
The next day, April 30, 2020, he received a call from a hidden number. It was Zapatero. In this conversation, which lasted about 10 minutes, Martínez Sola explained the difficult financial situation that his company was going through and the need to access public aid funds.
Months later, Martínez Sola was informed that Plus Ultra would receive the aid that was later approved by the Council of Ministers led by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Martínez Sola and Roselli add that the payments were not limited to the efforts to obtain the rescue of Plus Ultra, but that it also “carried out intense work” for the airline in Venezuela. Among them, the “obtaining permits for humanitarian flights” or help in “the sale of aviation material from aircraft retired from the fleet” stands out. But above all, it stands out “the successful management of the fuel debt with PDVSA (the Venezuelan state oil company) which reached almost 8 million dollars and was deferred for five years and without interest”, which meant savings for the company of more than two million dollars.
More tests
Hours after the letters were made known, businessman Julio Martínez Martínez reaffirmed in the National Court that it was former President Zapatero who told him that the Government was going to grant the rescue to the Plus Ultra airline.
When asked again about which people the former President of the Government had influenced in favor of the airline, the accused witness indicated that he did not know. However, he confirmed that he charged a 1% commission for having managed to obtain the million-dollar state aid and that it was Zapatero who determined that the payments of the bite were channeled through the Relevant Analysis company.
In summary, the judge accuses Zapatero of leading a criminal structure dedicated to influence peddling in Spain and abroad, through links in Venezuela, China and the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, Zapatero’s explanations are still pending regarding the origin of the jewelry that was found in his office, valued at 1.3 million euros, which led to the opening of an additional line of investigation and which charged him with crimes of smuggling and crimes against the public treasury. In his appearance before the judge on June 17, Zapatero did not give any explanations about the jewelry and referred to a document from his defense where he asked for more time before answering questions about its origin.
Government
Meanwhile, the Government’s spokesperson minister, Elma Saiz, assured, during a press conference reported by the Europa Press agency, that Pedro Sánchez and his ministers “maintain their confidence that the former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is innocent.”
The spokesperson avoided evaluating the “different versions and defense strategies” of Julio Martínez and other defendants in the ‘Plus Ultra case’.
“We continue to believe in his innocence and we continue to defend the presumption of innocence,” said Saiz when asked at the press conference after the Council of Ministers about Julio Martínez’s confession that the former president “marked the steps to follow” in the rescue of 53 million of the Plus Ultra airline.
The minister spokesperson assured that she was not going to “qualify different versions and defense strategies” in a case that is being heard in the National Court and that, she stressed, is in an “initial phase.”
“Total collaboration with justice, we continue to defend Zapatero’s presumption of innocence,” he insisted.
Furthermore, Elma Saiz reiterated that the rescue of Plus Ultra was “endorsed” by the technical services of the SEPI, as well as later “reviewed” by the Investigative Court number 15 of Madrid, in addition to being “analyzed” by the European Commission and “audited” by the Court of Auditors or the Court of Justice of the European Union.
“The action of the Spanish Government in that file was correct; there is no doubt,” emphasized the minister spokesperson.
Opposition
On the other hand, the spokesperson for the Popular Party in Congress, Ester Muñoz, accused Zapatero and the Government of Pedro Sánchez of having been “lying to all Spaniards for weeks” in relation to the rescue of Plus Ultra. Thus, he has stressed that the “confessions” of Julio Martínez Martínez, Zapatero’s partner, and the airline’s leadership “point to Moncloa”, the Government House.
Muñoz stated that Sánchez and Zapatero “are the same”, “they have always worked in the same team” and “everything they have done they have done together.” “The rescue could not have occurred if someone did not say yes to Zapatero,” he exclaimed, indicating that the former president would call “some minister” or Pedro Sánchez himself. “Therefore the confessions not only point to Zapatero, they point to Moncloa,” he said.
