Caracas Chronicles

After leaving office, former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero began to work as a mediator between the Maduro regime in Venezuela and Western democracies through his connections in the European left, attempting to find ways in which the Venezuelan opposition and the West could communicate their concerns and hopefully bring about a democratic transition. The process began during an attempt of establishing negotiations in 2016, when Zapatero –acting as a supposed mediator– proudly promised that, with his help, the public could see the goodwill of both the opposition and the regime to dialogue. But what seemed like a noble crusade from a formerly lauded figure in the European left quickly became a get-rich quick scheme, through which many players in the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) have reaped countless benefits. Including, to some extent, people very close to Pedro Sánchez.

PSOE has been one of the most important and influential parties in  four decades of Spanish democracy. Following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and the enactment of Spain’s 1978 constitution, PSOE became a key player in the newly established constitutional monarchy. In fact, Spain’s longest serving Prime Minister Felipe González –once PSOE’s Secretary General– became one of its most important figures. However, the time when the PSOE was a respected social democratic party that balanced progressive ideals with free-market capitalism has seemed to pass.

Whilst González remains a widely respected former president, two controversial PSOE heads of government followed him. First, was Rodríguez Zapatero, president from 2004 to 2011. Then, came the controversial current socialist president, Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez’s PSOE has not only been criticized for murky alliances with former ETA terrorists and Catalan separatists but has also been recently linked to one of the most brutal and corrupt governments in the world: Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.

While Zapatero’s backchannel attempts began in 2016, he deepened his lukewarm attitude towards the regime, constantly undermining attempts from Western allies of both Spain and the Venezuelan opposition to reach agreements that could lead to an advent of democracy

The regime and part of the international community, including PSOE, have been opaquely linked through Zapatero for almost a decade. Following his tumultuous time in office, marred with corruption scandals during one of the worst moments of the Spanish economy, the Mr. Bean-lookalike started to create a curious persona. Out went the controversial former president; in came the savior of Venezuela’s chavismo.

While Zapatero’s backchannel attempts began in 2016, he deepened his lukewarm attitude towards the regime, constantly undermining attempts from Western allies of both Spain and the Venezuelan opposition to reach agreements that could lead to an advent of democracy, during the 2018 negotiation process in Santo Domingo. According to exiled opposition leader Julio Borges, who was then leading the Venezuelan National Assembly, Zapatero acted in cahoots with Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez –key figures in the regime– to sabotage any attempts to reach a meaningful deal regarding the 2018 presidential elections. When Borges refused to accept conditions that the former president had “helped” to broker, Zapatero allegedly threatened him. The opposition was eventually sidelined from the elections. 

In fact, the rapprochement has grown so close that Zapatero was one of the ‘international observers’ invited by the Maduro regime during the July 28th elections. Meanwhile, the observers invited by the opposition –including Bogotá former leftist mayor Claudia López and a delegation of Spanish lawmakers– were deported at the Maiquetía airport near Caracas. 

Following the events of July 28th, when most democracies publicly demanded the Venezuelan regime to publish results by polling station, Zapatero remained silent. Meanwhile, his party and its leadership shared the responses of the democratic international community in calling for transparency in the process. Sánchez’s stance was in lockstep with the rest of the European Union. 

But Sanchez’s handling of the Venezuelan crisis –especially once the opposition’s former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia left for Madrid– eventually became a bitter debate between his government and the Popular Party (PP), Sánchez´s main opposition and PSOE’s main rival. Many at the PP –as well as less moderate politicians from the right– qualified his responses as weak and some accused him of outright corruption and supporting the regime.

Past and present of a close friendship

How exactly did Zapatero’s actions bring in the rest of the PSOE? When Pedro Sánchez took over in 2018, following a no-confidence vote from PSOE against PP’s Mariano Rajoy, Zapato –who still held considerable influence in the party– allegedly got to work using his chavista links, including a close friendship with vice president Delcy Rodríguez for personal gain. 

During the Sánchez government, Venezuela has experienced not one but two presidential crises which eventually led to heavy sanctions on key figures in the Maduro regime. These included entry restrictions into the Schengen Area for many high-ranking officials in the chavista apparatus. 

This all came to a head when in the early hours of January 20^th 2020 –with the sanctions in full effect— Spanish businessman Victor de Aldama, Minister of Transport and PSOE’s Organization Secretary José Luis Ábalos, and his close advisor Koldo García went to the Madrid-Barajas Airport. The alleged purpose of the meeting was to turn away Delcy Rodríguez, who had landed there despite EU sanctions banning her from entering the European Union. Pedro Sánchez and his ministers publicized this narrative.

However, in 2024, the case was reopened during an investigation by the Guardia Civil –the Spanish equivalent of the FBI— on another corruption scheme involving Aldama and Ábalos. The investigation uncovered that Abalos had written a letter (with 27 grammatical errors) inviting Delcy Rodríguez for a meeting in Spain. The same Guardia Civil investigation revealed that Aldama, close friend of Koldo, was approached by Delcy Rodriguez during that conversation at Barajas to buy 104 lingots of sanctioned Venezuelan gold for $68.5 million. According to documents published by Guardia Civil, Sánchez seems to have approved the meeting with Delcy at the airport. 

That meeting between Delcy and Ábalos came two months after the latter secretly met with Maduro’s chief negotiator Jorge Rodriguez in Madrid, according to an investigation by Spanish newspaper El Mundo. This previously unknown meeting between Jorge and Ábalos happened when the chavista regime complained in public about PSOE’s growing ties to Juan Guaidó, who Sánchez had recognized as interim president in 2019. 

Zapatero and Ábalos are also involved in the state bail-out of Air Europa, another scandal currently under investigation. This Spanish airline had hired Aldama in 2019 to negotiate the payment of a heavy debt from none other than the Venezuelan government.

The reopening of the Delcygate scandal could not have come at a worse time for Rodríguez Zapatero, whose involvement with president elect Edmundo González Urrutia while in hiding led to his Spanish exile. Zapatero not only schemed González Urrutia’s exile and assured him safe passage to Spain, but the regime managed to obtain photographs of Edmundo González and Jorge Rodríguez within the Caracas residence of the Spanish ambassador, while the former signed a document agreeing to leave Venezuela after –he later alleged– being coerced and threatened.

Following this episode, two more incidents have come to light involving people close to Zapatero in Venezuela. The ambassador to Venezuela during the Zapatero administration, Raúl Morodo, recently pled guilty to covering up his son’s businesses with PDVSA –of almost five million dollars– before the Spanish tax authorities. He is also accused of illegally racking up €340,000. In a different development, Zapatero’s daughters started operating their digital marketing firm in Venezuela. 

Currently the Spanish opposition has been calling for Sánchez’s resignation and the scandal has become a focal point of Spanish politics. While the situation is still developing, it’s disheartening to witness how a party that once fought tirelessly against a dictatorship at home became instrumental in upholding a new one abroad.