Torres expedited Aldama payments, denied contact publicly

Torres expedited Aldama payments, denied contact publicly

A WhatsApp message. "Issue resolved; imminent; I'll sleep better tonight." Signed by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres and received by Koldo García, former advisor to ex-Minister José Luis Ábalos. Behind the exchange, according to documents published by El Mundo, lie four months of efforts to unblock the multimillion-euro payment from the Canary Islands government to Víctor de Aldama's mask company. Torres led the archipelago when the pandemic broke out. Later, as Minister for Territorial Policy, he denied any contact with Koldo García to the media. The contradiction is textbook.

What the messages say and what the minister denied

The published material reproduces conversations held over four months. In them, Torres appears pushing for payment to Aldama's company because, according to his own explanation, the Canary executive had breached the contract: it hadn't paid half upfront and antiestéticared legal action from the supplier. This is the minister's alibi. The issue isn't the substance—expediting a procedure is a political competence—but the form and timing.

Because the same Torres who now admits the contacts previously said he had none. The denial is recorded. And the screenshot of the message accompanying the payment—"I'll sleep better tonight"—circulates everywhere. Politically, the sequence is toxic: first silence, then denial, trinc by partial admission. Each step reinforces suspicion that there was something to hide, although the minister insists he was only fulfilling his duty.

The defense: expediting isn't stealing

One argument holds that a regional president exists to unblock administration when urgency demands it. During the pandemic, with hospitals screaming for masks, the responsible politician calls the supplier, pressures officials, and closes the file. None of this is a crime. The company gets paid what it's owed, and public service works.

The problem is that the supplier wasn't just any supplier. It was the Koldo network. And the interlocutor wasn't a tax official, but Koldo García, Ábalos's right-hand man. The question looming over the whole affair isn't whether expediting payments is legal, but why the President of the Canary Islands spoke with that specific intermediary instead of using ordinary channels. The official answer convinces almost no one.

The upcoming judicial calendar

The case doesn't end with Torres. Messages from Aldama's phone, according to emerging reports, may implicate more names: speculation surrounds Ábalos and other figures in the Socialist circle. Also pending is the trail of deleted messages from the Attorney General, which, if they appear and confirm suspicions, could put the Government against the ropes. Meanwhile, proceedings involving Begoña Gómez regarding Complutense University software advance toward trial.

None of this is final. These are investigations, indications, and leaks. But the drip-feed is constant, and each installment adds a new piece to the narrative. The Executive's strategy—deny, qualify, blame the far-right—works short-term but erodes support medium-term. The underlying problem is that the accumulation of cases begins to look like a pattern.

Why nobody resigns

The question running through all analyses is why a minister caught in such an obvious contradiction remains in office. The short answer: because he can. The PSOE has the votes, the opposition is fragmented, and the electoral calendar isn't pressing for several months. In any other European country, a sequence like this would have cost at least one resignation. Not here.

Some argue power isn't property, but a lease that must be renewed. And the further away renewal seems, the less actions matter. When regional and general elections approach, things change. Especially for coalition partners. Meanwhile, the spectacle continues, and the attentive electorate looks away.

The detail that disorients isn't in the messages, but in the screenshots. Aldama took them from day one. He saved screen grabs of everything. Anyone negotiating with such an intermediary should know every word is recorded. And that someday, when it suits the intermediary, those words will come to light.