[News] Ábalos' trip to the Canary Islands and Koldo's three envelopes

[SougarLord]

 

Koldo García Izaguirre is the shadow of Minister Ábalos, of whom he was an escort in times of opposition. A man of the highest confidence -professional and personal- in him, one of his functions is to manage the expenses of the Minister of Transport, the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE and his friend José Luis. One and three. That is why the ministerial advisor always travels with three envelopes in his backpack. Made of transparent plastic, reusable and with a button closure, like a folder, they have a white sticker so as not to confuse them. One says, written in pen, "Ministry"; another, "Ferraz"; and the third, "Jose", without accent, like all the Joses, whom nobody calls Jose. Before the trip he charges them with 2,500 euros in total. As money comes out, receipts, tickets or invoices come in without the minister touching the bills. Koldo doesn't like credit cards and he's not afraid of his backpack being pulled. Because of his size - he was aizkolari, perhaps the only one who felt Spanish on all four sides - and as an expert in fighting techniques, he is not the best target of the thieves.

 

From those envelopes came the 1,800 euros ("it was less", they say without specifying the exact figure) that Koldo García paid in cash at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 22, 2020 at the Palacio de Isora, one of the most po[CENSORED]r hotels Tenerife luxury hotels, to liquidate the extras of the controversial vacations of the minister, family and entourage. But let's not start the story at check-out, but at the beginning.

 

The beggining

The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda arrived in the Canary Islands on Thursday, November 19. The head of Maritime Rescue, Sánchez sent him along with the head of Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, to address what the Government described as a "humanitarian crisis." More than 2,000 immigrants had overflowed the Arguineguín dock, in Gran Canaria, with the avalanche of cayucos that Morocco consented to, if not propitiated. The Africans were overcrowded and the island could not take it anymore, without sufficient material or human resources to serve them. The trip was atypical, since Ábalos arrived in the Canary Islands accompanied by his wife and his two minor children, something exceptional on an official trip by a minister. "José Luis works in Spain from 7 in the morning until 1 the next morning every [CENSORED] day," says a collaborator vehemently, "and in recent months he is trying to spend a little more time with his family." It is for personal reasons, sources consulted by ABC argue.

Ábalos' migratory agenda - visit the Maritime Rescue facilities in the Port of Las Palmas and the Maritime Captaincy - began and ended on Friday, November 20, but his cabinet placed a visit to the works on Saturday morning, very opportunely. extension of the Tenerife South airport. This "forced" the holder of the Transport portfolio to change the island, which he took advantage of to stay the weekend on the Tenerife beach of Isora with his family.

 

Thus, on Friday afternoon the entourage checked into one of the best hotels in Tenerife, the Palacio de Isora, a "5-star grand luxury" category. They had six rooms reserved in all: the minister's and his family; that of the director of the Minister's Cabinet, Ricardo Mar; that of the press chief, Alfredo Rodríguez; another for Koldo García and those of the two bodyguards. No one objected to the seamless step of monitoring the humanitarian migrant crisis to the hotel with the largest saltwater infinity pool in Europe. "Does the minister have to go to a pension?" Asks a person from his surroundings.

 

 

ABC reported on the stay on Wednesday, November 25, three days after the conclusion of the trip and, despite the opinion of Ábalos and his team, a large part of the public opinion did not find that step in the drama of others to their own opulence. The story focused precisely on that dichotomy: taking advantage of an official trip in which a humanitarian crisis was addressed to spend the weekend with the family in the most luxurious hotel in Tenerife. Regarding the costs of this trip, which was official, paid for with public money, and became personal, on the eve of the publication Ábalos categorically refused to offer explanations: “ABC tried several times yesterday to collect the minister's version and contrast the details, mainly the distribution of public and private funds, with José Luis Ábalos' team, but there was no response.

 

Operation save the minister

The minister, in theory, gave an order not to make any comment, neither to this newspaper nor to any media after the publication. He believes that in the "Delcygate" it was harmful to speak, so absolute silence. On the other hand, on the day of publication, his press team used allegedly trusted journalists to attack ABC with an old trick: if you can't deny what is published, because it is true, deny what they have not published. The virulence of the operation save Minister Ábalos (in a normal country, a president who takes advantage of a humanitarian emergency to go with his family on vacation to a five-star hotel has his political future more than compromised) showed that we must continue to look towards the future. Isora Palace. ABC requested the breakdown of expenditures, public and private, through the Transparency Portal, since they do not attend to the ordinary route. This newspaper knows of the presence of Koldo García on the trip to the Canary Islands, payments in cash, French champagne, a massage ... but then without confirmation. Transport asked for one more month to respond, claiming "special complexity." They meet at the end of January with three figures that are collected in a few hours. Between Friday 20 and Sunday 22 the Ministry spent 7,150.34 euros on transportation (4,819.74), accommodation (2,155) and food (175.60). They refused to answer the rest of the questions - a lot - but the ridiculous amount of support gave truth to the story of the cash payments.

 

Now we return to the aforementioned 4 in the afternoon of Sunday, November 22. Koldo asks for the bill at reception. The extras add up to almost 1,800 euros. The ex-escort opens the backpack, takes the cue and pays. Ticket upon ticket, to the amazement of those present. Ábalos' advisor asks for invoices and distributes them in the money envelopes: this one for Ferraz, this one for the Ministry, this one for Jose. On February 8, two PP deputies, Andrés Lorite and Ana Vázquez, asked the Government about the presence of Koldo García in the Canary Islands and for the payment of services and drinks in cash. "Koldo is a man of his word, and if someone shows that he has put a euro where he was not he, he resigns," says a person close to the Ábalos advisor.

 

Ferraz

The testimonies collected by ABC relate that both the Ministry and the PSOE advance the "budget items" and then justify them (Ábalos would have maintained party contacts in Tenerife). On other occasions Koldo advances the money from his pocket and then justifies it with the invoices or tickets and collects it in cash, both the part of the Ministry and that of the party. The massage is true, the minister gave it to him (and he went to his envelope, they report). The champagne bottles ("two or three" at 75 euros each) too, but Ábalos did not taste them. Koldo requested them to celebrate good news with the bodyguards and they paid "cleavage". In the end, he does the math and distributes the expenses among the occupants of the six rooms, who then give him the money. Koldo is the minister's cashier and man for everything. So much so that the same thing leads him to see Delcy Rodríguez a Barajas who buys him tobacco.

 

Development sources of different political signs confirm that the Ministry does not issue credit cards "to avoid abuse", but that the current minister's behavior "is not normal": "It can be done, but the usual thing is to pay with a card and pay it off , leaving the cash only for small amounts "and" in no case should an advisor finance a minister. " When ABC reported on the trip, a cabinet person asked the Ministry's travel agency to issue the hotel bills and flights for his family in Ábalos' name. For reasons that cannot be explained, there are eleven invoices, one for each charge, instead of a single document with the total of the trip. They total 1,729.35 euros, and Koldo also paid them, but this time with a card.

 

On December 2, a week after this newspaper revealed the trip, Ábalos transferred that amount to his adviser, friend and Renfe advisor, who was so devoted to his boss that he even advanced money.