The Zapatero case has entered a new phase after the leak of several reports from the National Police's Economic and Fiscal Crimes Unit regarding the public bailout of Plus Ultra. What began as an investigation into the 53 million euros granted by SEPI to the airline has now expanded to include an alleged network of influence peddling, shell companies, supposedly fictitious invoices, political contacts, and international business.
The key to the case, according to UDEF, is to determine whether former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero acted as the linchpin of a structure designed to obtain aid, permits, contracts, or business by leveraging his political influence and contacts in Spain, Venezuela, China, and other countries. The investigation is being handled by Judge José Luis Calama of the National Court.
Zapatero, for his part, has denied the allegations. The former president has stated that he never made any representations to any Public Administration in relation to the Plus Ultra bailout and has defended that all his public and private activity has been carried out within the law.
First Key: The 53 Million Euro Bailout of Plus Ultra
The starting point is the bailout of Plus Ultra, an airline with Venezuelan business ties that received 53 million euros from the public fund managed by SEPI during the pandemic.
According to police reports, the company's executives sought from March 2020 how to access public aid and which political contacts could facilitate that path. In one of the analyzed conversations, Plus Ultra officials considered two avenues: one through the then-minister José Luis Ábalos and another through Zapatero's circle.
UDEF maintains that the alleged network used two channels of influence: the so-called "Ábalos route" and the "Zapatero route." The agents believe that the intercepted conversations reflect an organized structure, with a division of labor, to try to obtain the airline's bailout.
Second Key: "Delcy should call Ábalos. Or someone with ZP"
One of the most relevant messages in the investigation is a conversation in which Plus Ultra executives discuss how to reach the government to obtain aid.
According to the UDEF report cited by EL PAÍS, Rodolfo Reyes, then owner of Plus Ultra, and Julio Martínez Sola, vice-president of the airline, spoke of resorting to Delcy Rodríguez, a Venezuelan leader, or someone from Zapatero's circle. In that exchange, the phrase appears: "Delcy should call Ábalos. Or someone with Zapatero."
For the investigators, this message shows that the airline was not only seeking an administrative route but also a political route to access aid. It also connects the case with Venezuela, a territory where Zapatero maintained a network of political relationships due to his role as a mediator and his contacts with chavismo leaders.
Third key: the role of Delcy Rodríguez and flight permits
The figure of Delcy Rodríguez appears on another front of the investigation. According to reports, Plus Ultra's circle allegedly resorted to contacts in Venezuela to obtain flight authorizations between Spain and the Latin American country.
The UDEF collects messages in which authorizations for flights without diplomatic notes and the intervention of Venezuelan bodies are discussed. In some communications, Delcy is referred to as "the Lady," an expression that, according to investigators, would be related to her capacity to influence certain strategic decisions, including permits and operations linked to Venezuela.
This point is important because it expands the case beyond the Spanish rescue. The investigation now looks not only at SEPI but also at how the alleged network would have operated in Venezuela to resolve Plus Ultra's business interests.
Fourth key: invoices, consultancies, and reports that the UDEF considers fictitious
Another major block of the case affects Análisis Relevante, the consultancy linked to businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, a friend of Zapatero and identified by investigators as a key piece of the network.
According to the UDEF, part of the payments would have been channeled through invoices, reports, and consultancy work that investigators consider disconnected from real activity. The intercepted emails point, according to the Police, to an operation in which the concepts, amounts, and invoicing methods were decided retrospectively.
In one of the emails cited in the reports, Zapatero's secretary, Gertrudis Alcázar, writes from the account "presidente Zapatero" to inquire about a 20,000 euro invoice and the concept that should be stated. The UDEF interprets these messages as indications of invoicing created to give documentary appearance to allegedly non-existent services.
Fifth key: Zapatero's secretary and the "presidente Zapatero" email
The figure of Gertrudis Alcázar, the former president's secretary, appears as an operational piece in the police reports. According to the UDEF, Alcázar would have intervened in emails related to the issuance of invoices and coordination with Julio Martínez's corporate circle.
Investigators maintain that part of that communication was channeled from the "presidente Zapatero" account. This information is relevant because, according to the police thesis, it would allow connecting the documentary and corporate operations with the former president's direct circle.
The delicate point here is legal: the Police interpret these emails as indications of knowledge and participation, but it will be the judge who determines if these indications have sufficient criminal scope.
Sixth key: companies in Dubai and the Virgin Islands
The case has also incorporated an international front. The UDEF has located companies linked to Julio Martínez Martínez in offshore territories, including one in Dubai and another in the British Virgin Islands.
According to investigators, a company in Dubai would have been designed as an instrument to channel abroad a 1% commission associated with the Plus Ultra rescue and avoid its traceability in Spain. However, a report from the National Fraud Investigation Office indicates that there is no record that the airline ultimately paid this commission.
The Police have also located a company in the British Virgin Islands, Landside Holding Ltd, linked to Julio Martínez Martínez, with an investment portfolio valued at more than half a million dollars. This company, according to the seized documentation, would have acted in operations related to the Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela.
Seventh key: China and the sale of Venezuelan oil
Another of the elements that most broadens the scope of the case is the alleged connection with Chinese companies interested in buying Venezuelan oil. According to the information accessed by various media, the Chinese potential buyers would have been referred to the "Office of President Zapatero" to access oil, liquefied natural gas, petroleum coke, and other product sales operations. The documentation mentions letters of intent sent to Zapatero by companies interested in long-term contracts.
For the UDEF, this episode shows that the influence attributed to the former president would not be limited to the rescue of Plus Ultra, but would have extended to high-level international operations, especially on the Venezuela-China axis.
Eighth key: the attempt to halt the judicial investigation
The police reports also include conversations in which members of the alleged scheme talk about "cutting off" or torpedoing the judicial investigation initially opened in Madrid regarding the rescue of Plus Ultra.
One of the most striking messages is the reference to creating a "Kitchen Gabinet," alluding to the parapolice operation linked to the Kitchen case. In those conversations, a lawyer close to Plus Ultra stated that "the chief prosecutor" was a "friend," although the agents do not identify in the report which prosecutor the interlocutors were referring to.
The UDEF considers that these messages reinforce the thesis that the alleged network not only sought to influence the granting of aid, but also the development of the subsequent judicial investigation.
Ninth key: Zapatero's daughters and the company Whathefav
Another of the most sensitive points of the case affects the company Whathefav, managed by Zapatero's daughters. According to the cited police reports, the UDEF is analyzing payments and movements linked to that company and maintains that the former president and his family environment would have benefited from funds originating from the network.
It is important to emphasize a significant clarification: according to the available information, Zapatero's daughters are not listed as investigated in the case. The investigation focuses on determining whether a system of payments, invoices, and reports existed that served to channel funds to the former president's circle.
This point requires special legal caution, as it affects individuals who are not indicted and because the police thesis must be verified in court.
Tenth key: what Zapatero denies
Zapatero has denied having made any representations in favor of Plus Ultra before any Public Administration. He has also denied having commercial companies linked to a plot and has expressed his willingness to cooperate with the Justice system.
That defense will be one of the axes of the case. The police investigation maintains that the former president often acted through third parties, especially Julio Martínez Martínez and his secretary. Zapatero's defense, on the other hand, will predictably try to separate his private, professional, or international relationships from any direct dealings with public bodies.
That will be the judicial core of the case: whether the conversations, emails, payments, and companies described by the UDEF prove a network of influence peddling or if, as the former president maintains, there was no illicit intervention in the bailout or in any other operation.
Why the case is politically explosive
The case is politically explosive for four reasons. The first, because it affects a former President of the Government. The second, because it connects with the rescue of an airline granted during the pandemic with public money. The third, because it introduces names of enormous political weight such as Delcy Rodríguez, José Luis Ábalos, Venezuela, and SEPI. And the fourth, because the UDEF describes an alleged network with business, family, and international ramifications.
The investigation is not closed and it will be the National High Court that determines the criminal scope of the facts. But the material known so far allows us to understand why the case has ceased to be an isolated matter concerning Plus Ultra and has become a case of enormous political, judicial, and economic scope.
The question that the investigation must now answer is simple to formulate and complex to prove: whether Zapatero was just a former president with international contacts or if, as the UDEF maintains, he acted as the central piece of an alleged network of influences around Plus Ultra.