"Anyone can have an accident": Ábalos's ex-wife reports threats from Koldo García

BarcelonaJosé Luis Ábalos's ex-wife, Carolina Perles, reported tonight the "threats" she claims she received from Koldo García when he was an advisor to the former Minister of Transport. In an interview on Telecinco, Perles described Koldo as a "life saver" and explains that he marked a "turning point" in her life. "He behaved very hostilely toward me," she states. The then advisor, now indicted along with Ábalos for allegedly taking illegal kickbacks, was "hooked up" by the minister all day long with the goal of "keeping him under control at all times," according to the woman, who believes that García acted as a "mole" for Santos Cerdán, the former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) also under investigation in the alleged case.

Perles explains that the then ministerial advisor entered and left her house as he pleased and "without permission," to the point that he allegedly asked a woman to do jobs that "should make her aware of everything that happened [inside the house]." The clashes with Koldo and the discomfort he caused her led him to prohibit him from entering the home, explained Ábalos's ex-wife, who adds that it was then that García made her "threats."

"Sometimes he would take his brother. Then, in conversations that arose, Joseba [Koldo's brother] told me that when they wanted to annoy someone, they would make their life miserable to the point where they wanted to disappear," he says. He also explains that they "gave" him a car and that shortly after, "he felt like anyone could have an accident," a phrase he again attributes to Koldo's environment. "I lived in a lot of fear," he explains.

José Luis Ábalos

Throughout the interview, and in relation to Ábalos, Perles also noted how she was sometimes surprised by the "unusual" amount of cash he carried on him, especially given the fact that Koldo was always the one who paid for everything. She even went so far as to insinuate that the former minister has money abroad. "They should look at his passport because, after leaving office, I think he hasn't stopped traveling."

She also explained that in 2020 she informed PSOE leaders, such as Adriana Lastra and the director of communications, Maritcha Ruiz Mateos, that her husband "was seeing prostitutes." She claims that they told then-vice president Carmen Calvo and that she "told the president." She also reportedly told minister Nadia Calviño about this situation, who—always according to Perles' version—responded: "Don't tell me, I don't want to know anything."