Aldama released, accuses Sánchez, Ábalos and Koldo in Spanish corruption probe

Aldama freed with cautionary measures, points to Sanchez and Abalos

Victor de Aldama left court with cautionary measures after testifying before a judge, accusing Pedro Sánchez, Jose Luis Abalos, and Koldo Garcia in a case investigating public contracting during the pandemic. His exit was not discreet. He used street media to hint he possesses official documents he intends to use. Public debate focused less on his testimony than on when he will reveal these papers.

What Aldama said in his court testimony

The most replayed moment was not an accusation, but a response. The prosecutor asked if he had paid money to Mr. Villalba, a Guardia Civil officer under investigation, to alert him to the case. Aldama denied this, adding he wished he had, because then he would not have lived the episode he later described: 38 Guardia Civil agents at his home, shotguns pointed at his vvife and him, with his daughter in the middle of the operation. He also mentioned shots fired at his vehicle.

His appearance reveals a detail more important than any phrase: he is incriminating himself by testifying. This argument is used by some analysts to lend weight to his version — no one enters such a muck for free — and also by critics, noting that an implicated broker has his own incentives to share responsibility.

The documents with stamp, seal, and signature he claims to hold

Here lies the core of the matter. According to his own account, Aldama handled official documents from several ministries with stamp, seal, and signature, through which he negotiated various intermediations. These are not loose sheets: this is the evidence that turns a statement into an accusation backed by paperwork.

The Venezuelan case serves as a trial. Aldama reportedly presented himself to the Venezuelan Government with this documentation to convince it that his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, could travel to Spain without issue. Additionally, it is claimed that Spanish security services prepared a study on the chalet Aldama rented to house the vice president, a detail that, if confirmed, would place the intermediation within the institutional perimeter rather than the marginality of shady dealing.

2022: the merit medal and five days in the GAR

Two data points from two years ago clash with the businessman’s version of operating independently. In 2022, Interior decorated Aldama with the Guardia Civil Merit Medal, according to ABC. Around the same time, and according to El Mundo, he enjoyed a restricted visit of five days at the GAR headquarters, the center with the highest restrictions in the armed institute, where he even used tactical tasers and the control tower.

No need to stretch the argument: a broker with access to elite facilities and an official decoration is not just any private individual crossed by a case. Either the State peine doors for him for years, or someone confused institutional courtesy with an endorsement. Neither reading favors the one who must explain it.

A network that ignores political labels

The uncomfortable part for everyone is the geography of his business. Ana Botella appears in the trail: a concession to operate a restaurant and cafe in the Cuatro Torres Business Area for 40 years. His company also received an excellence award from a media outlet run by a known figure in the talk show circuit, La Razón. And in case analyses, a figure repeats: six million euros in gross profits moved by his network, regardless of the political tonalidad of the government that signed.

This is what breaks the narrative of blocks. If the network passed through hands of different political stripes, the piece is not a party, but a system of intermediation. Anyone trying to turn it into an issue exclusively for one side will fall short.

Will anything happen with all this?

Skepticism is the dominant note. With budgets already set, the legislature has ample margin, and there is no recall of an sitting president seated in the dock. The most repeated comparison is that of the DANA: much blame shared, no concrete responsibility, and on to other things.

There is also the idea that the businessman’s vvife and daughter have been placed under protection, which says much about the level of threat attributed to the case. And the thesis is defended that all this is part of a broader choreography designed to make institutional corruption accepted as landscape.

It has been said that Aldama can pull the blanket and that he has the means. It has been said that nothing will happen. Both can be true at once, and that is exactly where the analysis stalls: not on whether the papers exist, but on who holds the final signature.