The Diplomat
People’s Party announced yesterday that it will take to the Congress of Deputies the request for explanations to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, about the information in which the former head of the Venezuelan military intelligence services, Hugo ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal, claims that the former Prime Minister is the owner of a gold mine in Venezuela.
The deputy secretary of Communication of the Popular Party, Pablo Montesinos, in statements to journalists, demanded that Rodríguez Zapatero give “urgent” explanations about what was published by El Confidencial. According to this website, “El Pollo” Carvajal informed the Audiencia Nacional that the former Prime Minister owns a gold mine in Venezuela, and added that he is working with colleagues in Caracas to obtain the documents that would prove this accusation.
Montesinos extended the request to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with whom Zapatero was yesterday at the PSOE Congress in Valencia, and said that the best thing would be for both of them to go out and give a press conference together to explain it. He also said that they would take the matter to the Congress of Deputies.
The deputy spokesman of the Popular Group in Congress, Pablo Hispán, also demanded “to know the business dealings” of the former president, the former Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, Raúl Morodo, and “so many socialists at the expense of the misery of the Venezuelan people”. In a message on his Twitter profile, Hispán also asked for explanations as to why the Attorney General of the State (Dolores Delgado), “does not investigate the plot of the prevaricating ex-judge (Baltasar) Garzón” in Venezuela. “For the PSOE Venezuela is not a dictatorship, it is a business”, he said in his message.
From Valencia, when asked about the statements made by “El Pollo” Carvajal, Rodríguez Zapatero described them as “surreal”.
Hugo Carvajal handed over a new batch of documents to the Audiencia Nacional on Friday, as part of his declared intention to collaborate with the Spanish justice system, following his arrest on 9 September, while his extradition process to the United States is being resolved, where he is wanted for alleged drug and arms trafficking offences.
Since then, Carvajal has handed over documents relating to alleged contracts between the office of former judge Baltasar Garzón, Ilocad, and the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, as well as other files that reflect payments from the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro to members of the founding team of Podemos.
