Keys to understanding the PSOE-PP war over the Civil Guard

MadridPedro Sánchez is experiencing one of the most complicated weeks of his term. The revelation of an alleged operation against the Civil Guard, revealed by The Confidential, has placed the Spanish government in the eye of the storm, as the PP (People's Party) is directly attributing the blame to the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). It all began on Monday, with the publication of an audio recording in which Leire Díez Castro, a grassroots socialist activist, demanded from a businessman indicted in the National Court information that would bring down the economic crime department of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard (UCO) in exchange for judicial benefits. Specifically, she was seeking dirt on Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, who is leading the investigation into cases affecting Sánchez's entourage. Also participating in this conversation was businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, who was in pretrial detention. This Thursday, the aforementioned media outlet published an audio recording from September in which, without further context, he states that Sánchez himself and the PSOE's organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán, were behind it. What are the keys to this case that have unleashed a new war between the PP and the PSOE?

The published audio recordings

"We don't have the security forces and bodies of the State to extort the citizens of this country. What I don't want is for this man, Antonio Balas [head of economic crime at the UCO], to become the executioner of us all. That's what needs to be dismantled," said the militant businessman accused in the National Court in a case of fraud in the hydrocarbon sector in a meeting in February. "He is directly with Cerdán, with Santos Cerdán, and directly with Leire. Furthermore, there are very few other people who have the information, and that will continue," says Pérez Dolset in a 14-second excerpt from a conversation with a journalist fromThe Confidential.

Who is Leire Díez?

Member of the PSOE and, until recently, held positions in public companies

From the beginning, the PSOE has distanced itself from Leire Díez, a party member who was deputy mayor of a small municipality in Cantabria, Vega de Pas, between 2011 and 2014, and who collaborated with Sánchez's candidacy in the party primaries in 2014 and The Country. Recently, she has held positions in the public companies Enusa and Correos. Officially, both the party and she stated that Díez is not acting on behalf of the party, which argued that she is writing an investigative book on the activities of the UCO. Despite initial doubts and facing pressure from party officials and deputies, Ferraz ended up opening an information file on the events this Wednesday, but without precautionary measures for Díez. The party wants to hear the entire audio to verify whether the member claims to act on behalf of the PSOE and, for the moment, is focused on denouncing the "reputational damage" she says she is suffering due to the fact that the media is assuming that Díez is a "plumber" of the PSOE.

The objectives: Antonio Balas and Juan Vicente Bonilla

A former senior UCO official recruited by Ayuso, at the origin of the Koldo case

Some of the names discussed at this meeting are Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, currently head of economic crime at the UCO, and Captain Juan Vicente Bonilla. Bonilla was the head of human resources at the UCO until he joined the corporate security management of the Madrid health service in October 2023, during the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The ARA has had access to some WhatsApp that Bonilla sent during the years 2020 and 2021 with the businessman José Luis Caramés, investigated in another case of fraud in the hydrocarbon sector.

Bonilla: "What do you want to talk about?"

Caramés: "About Koldo. Does that sound familiar? [...] Right-hand man of those who break [...]. This is very delicate."

Already on April 5, 2021, Bonilla, who uses the nickname Roberto Alcázar on WhatsApp, is informed of alleged illegal activities by José Luis Ábalos's former advisor. A year later, in March 2022, the PP's number two in Madrid filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office regarding alleged irregularities in the procurement of medical supplies, which ultimately led to the Public Prosecutor's Office filing a complaint against Koldo García and several businessmen, such as Víctor de Aldama.

Subsequently, the case was also brought against Ábalos. In fact, the former Minister of Transport, from the outset of his indictment, demanded the annulment of the case due to procedural irregularities and asked the Supreme Court to allow this Civil Guard captain to appear as a witness. The suspicion is that the UCO (Uruguayan Central University) has used a 2019 case file as a catch-all and used the information it has obtained to open new ones, leading up to the Ábalos case. The fact that Bonilla ended up working for Ayuso has fueled suspicions that the Madrid People's Party (PP) had inside information during this time, especially given the ideological orientation of this Civil Guard captain and his confidant. This was said the same day they put Koldo's name on the table.

Bonilla: "This is what these people want." red-purple. Let boredom kill us."

Caramés: "We'll kill these guys. I'll tell you when I see you."

The PSOE's balances

The risk of maneuvering against the UCO

One of the arguments that argues that Leire Díez and Pérez Dolset were not acting on behalf of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) in that February meeting, where they dug up dirt on UCO officials, is that, in three months, nothing has been achieved. If there were a Spanish government operation against this Civil Guard unit, why are they still there? Sources involved in the war against the UCO through the courts ask. What is certain is that Grande-Marlaska has not dared to intervene through organizational means, that is, by changing the people in charge in certain positions. He dismissed Manuel Sánchez Corbí as head of the UCO in 2018 and Diego Pérez de los Cobos as head of the Madrid command in 2020, but with considerable wear and tear due to political interference. In fact, on Tuesday he defended this Civil Guard unit in a press conference from the Moncloa Palace.

There have been many questions and speculations this week, but Sánchez remains silent. Some people, such as Leire Díez and Pérez Dolset, show interests that coincide with those of the PSOE leader, the driving force behind the concept. mud machine. It consists of far-right entities filing complaints against the Spanish government with the complicity of sympathetic media outlets and, in some cases, judicial bodies such as Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. A machinery that Sánchez attributes to Ayuso, her chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, and theWhoever can make it happen" of former president José María Aznar.

Meanwhile, Marlaska's number 2, Rafael Pérez, resigned on Tuesday citing "personal reasons" – his replacement is Aina Calvo, former mayor of Palma – The resignation coincides with the realization that there is a unity within Guá Sánchez and certain people – linked or not to the PSOE – who are looking for dirt to get rid of those in charge and thus deactivate the judicial proceedings.