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  • 'Delcy Case'. The Police hands Aena the judge's ban on destroying the tapes of the meeting between Ábalos and Delcy

The Government has always tried to give the impression that the meeting of the night from January 19 to 20 between the Minister of Transportation, José Luis Ábalos, and the Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, at the Barajas airport was something that was improvised on the march when the number two of Nicolás Maduro flew to Spain to try to avoid a "diplomatic crisis".

He said they knew nothing until four hours before it landed. But this version is now under suspicion. These are the words that commit six members of the Executive: the President of the Government himself and five ministers.

José Luis Ábalos

On January 24, the surroundings of José Luis Ábalos affirms that he traveled to the airport in a private capacity to pick up his friend, the Venezuelan Minister of Tourism, Felix Plasencia , and there he agreed with Delcy Rodríguez. He maintains that he did not know that she was on that flight when he went to Barajas: the meeting was "fortuitous." It is the first of the lies of the Government.

Ábalos himself tells this on January 25 in an interview with La Razón : "Arriving at the airport, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska calls me to tell me that Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya has received a communication from the Venezuelan embassy in which they tell him that Rodriguez also travels on that plane, and he tells me: "Since you're going, try not to get off the plane." [...] At the request of the Minister of Tourism, he asked me if I didn't care to greet her, in those circumstances, I don't know how each one reacts, but, in my case, I greeted her. Nothing more. [...] I went to receive a person I know and I meet with this bochinche ".

Pedro Sanchez

The Government insists at all times that the particular nature of the movement only acquires the status of "discrete diplomatic entrustment" when Foreign is aware of Rodriguez's presence on the plane. Pedro Sánchez himself reinforces this version by explaining on the 25th that "the minister came to avoid a diplomatic crisis, and he has succeeded." The objective was to ensure that Rodriguez "did not enter Spain".

Salvador Illa

The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa , emphasizes two days later in the explanation of Sanchez stating in the Being that Ábalos made a service to the country avoiding "successfully" a diplomatic crisis thanks to the "meeting" he had with the Venezuelan leader.

Maria Jesus Montero

In a press conference after the Council of Ministers on January 28, spokeswoman María Jesús Montero says: "The Foreign Ministry had reliable knowledge that this person stops in our country when the flight was already directed to Spain; that is, , when it had taken off.At the moment it was known that this person was on this flight, the authorities took the corresponding measures to prevent the entry of this person into Spanish territory, and Mr. Ábalos made a diplomatic management to reiterate to Mrs. Rodriguez that he could not enter Spanish territory, as finally it did not happen. "

Repeat this same version twice and ensure that in Spain "the obligation to check the ticket is established upon arrival of flights", not before taking off. That day, foreign sources told Europa Press that the Venezuelan embassy in Madrid informed them at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday 19 that Rodriguez was on the plane, about four hours before he landed in Spain.

Fernando Grande-Marlaska

On January 28, Grande-Marlaska said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the one who informed Interior of this fact and acted as appropriate to act in a rule of law", which is guaranteeing that Rodriguez was prevented from accessing Spain in compliance of the EU sanction.

Arancha González Laya

Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya also maintains this version that the Venezuelan authorities "confirmed" that Rodriguez "was arriving in Spain at the time he was flying."

"That is why José Luis Ábalos, when he is going to receive the Minister of Tourism, encounters this situation" and acts "in the least harmful way for relations between two countries and respecting international legality," he said on January 31.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Spain
  • Arancha González Laya
  • Salvador Illa
  • José Luis Ábalos
  • Fernando Grande-Marlaska
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • Delcy Rodriguez

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