The National Court has endorsed the investigation of former Government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for a possible crime of influence peddling in Bolivia, after the National Police detected evidence that he would have been paid 200,000 euros for carrying out arrangements with the authorities of the South American country for the benefit of the Peruvian business group Gloria.
The Third Section of the Criminal Chamber has dismissed the appeal filed by the former president’s defense, which requested excluding from the proceedings a report from the Economic and Financial Delinquency Unit (UDEF) on these payments. The magistrates consider that the facts under investigation are related to the case and that there is sufficient evidence to maintain this line of investigation.
The police report, prepared last June, indicates that Zapatero would have received compensation of 200,000 euros for trying to mediate in several million-euro lawsuits that the Grupo Gloria maintained with the Bolivian Administration.
Zapatero’s contacts with senior officials of Bolivia
As stated in the order, investigators identified payments coming from people linked to the Peruvian business conglomerate whose aim would have been to obtain the former president’s intervention with Bolivian political officials.
Specifically, the UDEF points out that Zapatero "could have met or contacted high-level political figures of that State," including the country’s president, the ministers of Economy and Justice, or the Attorney General of the State.
These possible contacts would have taken place during a trip by the former president to La Paz and Sucre in September 2024, when the business group had several economic disputes with the Bolivian Administration.
The Police consider that the services provided by Zapatero were intended "to try to mediate or influence" the country’s authorities in favor of the interests of the Grupo Gloria.
The National Court rejects the defense’s arguments
The defense of the former president had requested that the police report be kept out of the investigation by considering that the described facts were not related to the original procedure.
However, the magistrates have rejected that argument and have pointed out that the new evidence emerged from the analysis of communications obtained on the devices seized during the search of Zapatero’s office, carried out last May.
According to the car, these communications made it possible to identify data pointing to a possible offense of trading in influence before the Bolivian authorities for the benefit of the Peruvian business group.
"The appellate party's criterion regarding the absence of evidence, prior to the investigation that is now being called into question, of the existence of an organization allegedly dedicated to the commission of offenses of trading in influence cannot be shared," the judicial ruling states.
The decision of the Audiencia Nacional allows continuing to investigate the payments and the possible actions carried out by Zapatero in Bolivia, although it does not mean that the facts have been proven or anticipate any eventual criminal liability on the part of the former president.