The Objective brings you an exclusive today: PDVSA has retained Baltasar Garzón to act on several corruption cases in the Spanish jurisdiction. The cases involve acquisitions at BARIVEN and appear to focus particularly on Roberto Rincón and Abraham Shiera. Eulogio del Pino joined PDVSA, establishing goals and a partnership with ILOCAD, which is Garzón’s firm. Garzón was tasked with the “Coordination with the Prosecutor’s Office and Courts in Spain to expedite the proceedings and advances of the judicial process” (page 2). The objective asserts that the PDVSA memorandum, dated November 15, 2016, remains valid. Garzón’s coordination with the Attorney General of Spain essentially involved pillow talk with his girlfriend, María Dolores Delgado, also known as the Attorney General of Spain.
Sources consulted by this site claim that Garzón and Delgado have been together for many years. Their relationship was actually hinted at – already in July 2017 – in conversations between the disgraced commissioner José Manuel Villarejo (with whom the disqualified Garzón is involved) and his associates during criminal activities. Ultimately, like Villarejo, Garzón has been monetizing his relationship with Delgado while the latter climbed the ranks in Spain’s judiciary.
There is an unavoidable conflict of interest here. Eulogio del Pino is in jail awaiting trial, arrested in November 2017 on corruption charges. The contract worth €8,835,000 between ILOCAD and PDVSA, therefore, approved by Del Pino, could hardly remain valid unless, of course, the new management of PDVSA decides to uphold it. Rincón and Shiera have already been charged related to the acquisition of BARIVEN, and both pleaded guilty. Rincón and Shiera’s criminal associates have faced a similar fate. Interestingly, the Spanish justice system has refused to extradite others implicated in the case for which Garzón was retained, namely Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado.
Garzón has also been retained by Hugo Carvajal and Alex Saab. The former is wanted in Venezuela for treason and in the U.S. for drug trafficking, while the latter is the favored representative of Nicolás Maduro and is also wanted in the U.S. for corruption. It could be argued that PDVSA will honor each and every past/existing contract with Garzón as long as his office is involved with Saab. But then, Garzón’s girlfriend should recuse herself from every case involving Garzón, PDVSA, and Venezuela. Is that the case?