How a Venezuelan bailout became a threat to Spain's political establishment

By MARION FISCHEL JUNE 13, 2026 13:48 On June 17, former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (in office 2004 to 2011) will make history as the first person of his standing to appear before the National Court, cited by Judge José Luis Calama.

Zapatero’s camouflage as a diplomatic mediator in Venezuela since 2015 has rubbed away, exposing an accused whitewasher for the regime, who may have skipped official channels and gone straight to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for the 2021 bailout of the failing Venezuelan airline Plus Ultra during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calama is examining whether Zapatero led a network that profited from lobbying for Plus Ultra, according to a report by ABC News.

Calama has identified some €1.95 million moved via front companies, falsified paperwork, and opaque financial routes, according to NBC News, as quoted by Quartz media on May 20.

Thanks to pressure from France, Switzerland, and the United States , Zapatero is now in the international spotlight and will soon be on the stand.

Supporters of Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez hold signs against Spain's former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that read ''Zapatero, Maduro’s handler'', outside the venue where Zapatero attends a book presentation in Madrid, Spain, September 24, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Susana Vera) Calama’s 800-page indictment alleges that Zapatero held a “determinant influence” over Venezuelan oil transactions; that foreign buyers interested in Venezuelan crude had to submit their letters of intent directly to Zapatero.

The judge’s indictment adds that a corruption scandal at this scale, with the ex-prime minister at the center, could only have occurred with a high degree of political impunity in Spain.

Twists and turns of court documents widely discussed in Spain

Information about court documents, with new twists and turns, is published across the Spanish media daily and discussed ad nauseam in the bars and cafés.

The funds provided for the bailout of the Plus Ultra airline were allegedly used to channel millions of euros to foreign corporate networks involved in Venezuelan gold and oil trades. Following the indictment, the judge froze approximately €490,000 in Zapatero-linked accounts, as well as the accounts of his daughters’ marketing company, What the Fav.

UDEF, a Spanish National Police unit for the investigation of money laundering and large-scale corruption, has conducted raids, including four simultaneous ones last month, targeting Zapatero’s and others’ offices or business premises, following an initial raid on the Plus Ultra airline headquarters at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.

Calama alleges that Zapatero and people in his circle received €1.95m. ($2.11m.) in improper payments from the Plus Ultra bailout case.

The judge has issued international arrest warrants for Plus Ultra primary shareholders Venezuelan Rodolfo Reyes and María Aurora López, for alleged membership in a criminal organization, embezzlement, and money laundering, Democrata media reported on May 25.

In a May 19 report, El País explained: “The Attorney-General’s Office, led by Alejandro Luzón, has been looking since 2024 into the whereabouts of the bailout funds [for Plus Ultra] granted in March 2021, after receiving two information requests from authorities in Switzerland and France regarding alleged money laundering activities in those countries.”

In a May 28, 12-hour search and data clone raid on the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party’s (PSOE) iconic Madrid headquarters on Ferraz Street, the Civil Guard’s elite crime investigation unit and anti-corruption division (UCO), operating under judicial orders, turned up an alleged network used to discredit judicial cases.

According to media reports, UCO uncovered extensive incriminating material, including high-end luxury jewels currently valued in the press at €1m., in Zapatero’s domains. The former prime minister claims the jewels are a family inheritance of his wife.

Zapatero, in his role as diplomatic mediator in Venezuela, got Sánchez to agree to bail out the minuscule Venezuelan Plus Ultra airline during the COVID-19 pandemic, for €53m., a sum far beyond the worth of the airline. Judge Calama says a Dubai-based shell company was created to assist with covering the airline bailout’s money trail.

An immediate result of that bailout was a visit to Spain by then-Venezuelan-president Nicolás Maduro’s number two, vice president Delcy Rodriguez, who arrived on the tarmac at Barajas with many heavy suitcases and facing no controls. What those suitcases were filled with remains to be seen.

Part of the money Zapatero earned from his dealings with the Venezuelan regime may have been laundered through his two daughters’ marketing agency, coming from a consulting firm called Analisis Relevante. Currently, they have not been indicted. Speculation in the media is that if they are, Zapatero is likely to make a deal to spare them. That would…