This is how Ábalos would have maneuvered to plug in friends in public companies
The former Minister of Transport is accused of having placed two women from his circle: "She had a contract, but did not actively work"
MadridOne of the missions of the Supreme Court in the first three days of the trial against José Luis Ábalos has been to reconstruct the alleged cronyism of two women close to the then Minister of Transport and former organization secretary of the PSOE. They are Jessica Rodríguez, who was his partner for a year and a half; and Claudia Montes, with whom he maintained a "virtual" relationship. The first has admitted that she was receiving payment without going to work – a total of 44,000 euros at Ineco and Tragsatec–. The second woman claims that she did fulfill her duties at Logirail, although others dispute this. Amidst contradictions and labor disputes, several witnesses have tried to shed light on this this week at the high court. "I had a contract, but I wasn't actively working," Jessica Rodríguez acknowledged on Tuesday. Marino Turiel, José Luis Ábalos' lawyer, suspects there is a hidden agreement between her and Víctor de Aldama: "It is very clear that there is a pact and an agreement".
One of the witnesses who helped shed light on the case of Jessica Rodríguez was Ignacio Zaldívar, who was the deputy director of Administrative Management at Adif. He stated that Isabel Pardo de Vera, then president of Adif and who is under investigation at the National Court for the same events, had warned him that Ábalos had called her because they were "bothering" Jessica Rodríguez: "I didn't give it any more importance, [but] from that, I was left with the idea that we had to keep an eye on it, it was special," declared the witness.
His account fits with that of Virginia Barbancho, who was Jessica Rodríguez's manager at Tragsatec. When she asked for explanations upon seeing that she wasn't clocking in through the system she had implemented, she justified herself by saying she had computer problems: "I spent a week playing cat and mouse, I started to get very worried," said the witness. And she communicated the situation to Ignacio Zaldívar, who didn't make a move: "He simply [told me] to leave her alone." Likewise, the head of selection at Ineco, Ana Araceli, said that the selection process did not follow the usual course and that the interview that "is always done" and is "a step to be able to advance in the process" was not carried out.
The woman who woke up early to go to work and read books
The other woman linked to José Luis Ábalos is Claudia Montes. "You are showing me that they did something behind the scenes, but Ábalos never told me 'I got you a job'," she stated when she testified. She explained that the then minister sent her some links so she could look for a job and, through Infojobs, she ended up signing with Logirail. However, previously, Óscar Gómez Barbero, who was the company's manager, had stated that the company did not have a website to advertise vacancies and that in the case of temporary contracts for specific works and services, like Claudia Montes's, "they resorted to the database of resumes." In fact, Isaías Táboas, who was president of Renfe, acknowledged that Koldo García sent him Claudia Montes's resume. However, he made it clear that he followed the "usual procedure" he always followed: sending the resume to human resources so they could "assess if it could be useful."
from Instagram to prove that he would get up at four or five in the morning to work. The Supreme Court will consider whether this alleged cronyism leads to criminal liability.
The one who took over from José Ángel Menéndez was Óscar Gómez Barbero, who justified Claudia Montes' absenteeism: "It's not that she didn't work. She didn't go to work, and I understand it, because the place wasn't adequate." Why wasn't it? Because it was next to a set of stairs accessing offices on a ground floor. She herself explained that she mentioned it to José Luis Ábalos: "I don't know if they, logically, intervened. They saw that the situation was unfair," she explained. Finally, Óscar Gómez Barbero gave instructions to find an "adequate space" to work and promoted her. During her testimony, Claudia Montes boasted that she exceeded 80 overtime hours and accumulated 21 compensatory days and referred to her Instagram stories to prove that she woke up at four or five in the morning to work. The Supreme Court will assess whether this alleged nepotism carries criminal responsibility.