Spain’s transportation ministry had a plan to limit government advertising to media willing to report along its guidelines on the ‘Delcygate’ scandal—a clandestine meeting in Spain between then-transport minister José Luis Ábalos and the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, who was prohibited from setting foot on European soil.
The document, entitled ‘Delcygate Communication Strategy,’ was, in its own words, a response to the “deteriorating” image of the ministry in light of the scandal. The ministry handles all the advertising for the state-backed train companies Renfe and Adif, among many other public transport services.
The three-page strategy paper came to light last week through Spanish media when it was incorporated into documents related to the investigation of the Kaldo Case, a multi-million-euro crony corruption scandal—initially involving the purchase of face masks—of which Ábalos and his circle are once again the center. The document was extracted from the email of Isabel Pardo de Vera, then-director of Adif.
“Those who use defamation to deteriorate the image of the department head” cannot be rewarded, ministry officials said in writing, specifying that the “the Prisa Group and Atresmedia” were “especially relevant” among those allegedly acting against the ministry.
The meeting between Ábalaos and Rodriguez took place in January 2020, when the Venezuelan vice president made a stop in Spain on a trip to Turkey. She is prohibited from entering the Schengen Zone because of her role in the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. Rodriguez spent the night in an area of the airport that can be regarded as Spanish territory as it is beyond the limits of passport control. That night, Ábalos met with her and allegedly facilitated a call between her and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Most curiously, she had forty suitcases on the plane that remained in Spain, the contents of which have never been revealed. At the time, the ministry was attempting to recover a $200 million debt that the Venezuelan government owed Air Europa. The airline had contracted Víctor de Aldama as intermediary and he was also in contact with the ministry of transport. Aldama is a primary suspect in the Koldo Case as well.
To counteract the political fiasco that the meeting caused, the document contemplated the “conditioning of advertising resources” of the entire “Mitma Group” (acronyms of the Ministry of Transport and the linked public companies) in the media based on the “treatment of information” that they gave to the matter. The roadmap also suggested selecting “opinion makers / columnists / commentators,” naming three specific journalists who often appear on political talk shows in Spanish media, to invite to meet with Ábalos so they could transmit his version of the meeting in their appearances on Spanish television.
Ábalos has denied any knowledge of the document. Pardo de Vera has told Spanish media she didn’t remember it and was not its author.