The key role played by the United States in Zapatero's indictment

MadridAll macro-cases, as Zapatero's case is pointed out, have their concrete origin in a key character. There is usually an individual who allows the investigating judge to turn the investigation around, a kind of patient zero. In the case affecting the former Spanish president, this figure is the Venezuelan Rodolfo Reyes Rojas and the lever necessary for Judge José Luis Calama to reach him has been the United States, as is evident from the report by the UDEF of the National Police. That is to say, the investigation into Zapatero did not begin with a complaint from Manos Limpias –as the Spanish government initially stated–, but rather the evidence now in the hands of the National High Court comes from the agency Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), still during the Biden administration. Calama has issued an international arrest warrant against Reyes and his wife, Aurora López, for crimes of influence peddling, misappropriation, membership in a criminal organization, and money laundering.

Let's break it down. Homeland Security Investigations is an agency dependent on the United States Department of Homeland Security dedicated to prosecuting transnational crimes. According to its website, the typology of alleged crimes under its jurisdiction is broad, as it includes everything from arms and drug trafficking to money laundering, cybercrime, or intellectual property theft, in addition to combating organized crime or human exploitation. As part of an investigation into money laundering and evasion of sanctions imposed in the United States, HSI obtained the content of the mobile device of Rodolfo Reyes Rojas, one of the main shareholders of the airline Plus Ultra, which operated between Venezuela and Spain.

He was being investigated precisely for his business activities in various countries: "One of HSI's lines of investigation focused on his illicit activities related to money laundering through the use of certain companies, among which was Plus Ultra," states the UDEF report on the American investigation. He was detained in Miami (Florida) in 2021, and they decided to dump all the content of his mobile device. Upon examining his terminal, they found key evidence that they sent to the National Police, as it was considered that what was on Reyes Rojas's mobile could be of interest to the Spanish authorities.

At the time, La Razónechoed this detention, as the United States decided to ban the entry into the country of both Reyes Rojas and his wife, Aurora López. According to this media outlet, they were coming from Panama after having stopped in the Dominican Republic. The reason why this Venezuelan businessman already had media focus in the State is because the controversial rescue of Plus Ultra had already occurred. And Reyes Rojas is considered one of the majority partners through Snip Aviation, a company based in Madrid.

Key conversations in the investigation

to channel money from payments.

In these chats the former Spanish president does not speak in the first person, but he is spoken of on several occasions as the person who is pulling strings to get the bailout from the Spanish government. Or also to obtain a credit from Banco Santander. The intermediary between this group of businessmen and the former Spanish president would be Julio Martínez Martínez, owner of a network of companies, and Ramon Gordils, a Venezuelan politician. There is only one reference in which the president of Plus Ultra says he spoke directly with Zapatero for about 11 minutes.

According to the UDEF report, Reyes Rojas is also an administrator of other companies. Corpoestructura S.L., where another Plus Ultra businessman, Roberto Roselli Miele, is also linked, and Panacorp Casa de Valores S.A., an entity that was used to make loans and which, according to the UDEF, tried to give an image of solvency to the airline. These companies would also be linked to Análisi Relevante, one of Julio Martínez Martínez's companies, and would form part of the corporate network that investigators call finance boutique to channel the money from payments.