Zapatero met in Beijing with the Communist Party company for the purchase of Venezuelan oil

MadridThe former Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, met with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) company in Beijing and was appointed intermediary for the purchase of Venezuelan oil, according to the report by the Economic and Fiscal Crimes Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, which includes a letter of intent from the Chinese regime's company addressed to Zapatero.

This letter is dated October 30, 2023, two weeks after Zapatero visited Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party. The former Spanish Prime Minister was in Beijing between October 16 and 18, 2023. There, Zapatero attended the III Forum of the New Silk Road and met with Liu Jianchao, head of International Relations for the party. The former PSOE leader also had a meeting with Guo Yezhou, deputy minister of the international department of the CCP Central Committee.

After this trip, Zapatero, as the UDEF reports in its investigation, was appointed intermediary for the purchase of Venezuelan oil by the Chinese Communist Party. The former Spanish Prime Minister returned to China after receiving the letter of intent and met again with Jianchao and Yezhou in November 2023. This is one of the conclusions of the 158-page police report that was leaked on Saturday night.

Likewise, the report places Zapatero and his daughters as the main ultimate beneficiaries of the funds obtained by the Plus Ultra network with the government bailout during the pandemic. This is a second UDEF report on the investigation into this case, in which Zapatero will have to testify before the judge on June 2 as an investigated party, as reported by the Efe agency.

The Plus Ultra plot tried to boycott the investigationAccording to the police report that supports the indictment of the former leader of the PSOE, he himself would hold the leadership of the network and it would be accredited through "the direction exercised in relation to clients and Análisis Relevante, the instructions issued for the incorporation of companies abroad to allegedly receive payments or the different strategies followed to try to disassociate him from the network's activities". The UDEF speaks of the existence of an "team" led by Zapatero that would have acted as a link of influence between a boutique firm and different business and institutional actors.

According to the report, the group would be composed, among others, of Julio Martínez Martínez and Fajardo García, considered by the investigators as the "lieutenants" in charge of articulating the organization's contacts. In this regard, the police investigation maintains that both operated as direct intermediaries with clients and entities. As the police report states, "the set of evidence collected in the framework of these proceedings shows the existence of an organized network dedicated to the exercise of influence based on the contacts held by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero".

The Plus Ultra plot tried to boycott the investigation

This same police report reveals a conversation between Rodolfo Reyes, a Plus Ultra shareholder, and his lawyer Miguel Palomero, in which they discussed "making a Kitchen Cabinet" to boycott the judicial investigation. The UDEF report indicates a conversation on May 20, 2021, between Reyes and Palomero, in which the latter tells him that the next day he will ask to be told "what the judge of 15 is like," because "the investigation is very important" and emphasizes that "the chief prosecutor is a friend" and that "it must be stopped." "Absolutely," Reyes replies, according to the UDEF report, which adds that the Plus Ultra shareholder tells him to speak with Julio Martínez – president of the airline – to stop it. "We need to make a Kitchen Cabinet," Palomero concludes.

The report also includes a message from the president of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola, to a shareholder of the airline, to whom he says he has had a "satisfactory conversation" with Manuel Fajardo, a trusted man of Zapatero. Martínez Sola speaks with Rodolfo Reyes, a Plus Ultra shareholder, whose mobile phone dump was provided by an American agency, and assures him that he is surprised by the speed of events and that he has even had to change his profile picture in which he appears with Spanish suspenders because Zapatero will call him directly.

"Zapatero will call me. I had to change my profile picture. hahaha. The Spanish suspenders hahaha," he remarks. The conversation between the two ends with Rodolfo Reyes saying: "I already saw that you are very corporate in your profile picture," and Martínez Sola replies: "I'll put on Mr. Bean's. It's the same as Zapatero," he jokes in reference to the British actor Rowan Atkinson.