The WhatsApp messages incorporated into the summary of the Kitchen case show how the number two in the Ministry of the Interior, Francisco Martínez, Secretary of State for Security, and the operational chief of the Police at that time, Eugenio Pino, carried out a strategy to attack Podemos and the Catalan independence movement. The exchange of whatsapps, published this Tuesday by El País, took place between 2015 and 2019.
Villarejo’s newspaper reveals that the PP political brigade attacked Podemos since its irruption
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The maneuvers against Podemos from the Ministry of the Interior began as soon as the party reaped its first electoral victory in the 2014 European elections, as revealed by Commissioner Villarejo’s diary. In January 2016, when Okdiario and El Confidencial published the apocryphal report PISA (Pablo Iglesias Sociedad Anónima) —without judicial review and whose content was disregarded by the Supreme Court—, talks between PSOE and Podemos for the formation of a government had just begun. Any information that connected the party then led by Pablo Iglesias with Chavismo was vital for the political brigade and the Rajoy government.
A few weeks after the publication of the PISA report, the Secretary of State for the Interior and the deputy director of the Police spoke about new information from Venezuelan sources against Podemos, according to El País.
– Eugene Pino: It is necessary, according to our sources, that if it is to be given to the press, in the interest of the Venezuelan opposition, that it be El Mundo or EL PAÍS on a media and television platform. They require it to continue collaborating.
– Francisco Martinez: So there would be no problem. Don’t worry. The point is that I have to calmly discuss the matter with the minister…
– Eugene Pino: Boss, they are already offering me the Errejón account [en ese momento, número dos de Podemos]. But with the condition discussed this morning, that it appear in one of the two newspapers…
– Francisco Martinez: That won’t be a problem.
Two days later, Pino wrote to him: “The tests carried out at the place -Prisa- have given negative results.”
In June 2016, El País published that the Venezuelan Assembly was investigating the alleged illegal financing of the government of Hugo Chávez to the party of Pablo Iglesias through the Center for Political and Social Studies Foundation (CEPS). In this regard, ABC said that “Errejón signed the collection of 401,800 euros from Venezuela for CEPS consultancies in 2014”. There was no crime.
Next, Pino and Martínez had the following conversation:
– Eugene Pino: This sends me Gago [inspector jefe, mano derecha de Pino]. “We are investigating the complaint that these people received income that constitutes increases in assets due to alleged work income (because the former Minister of Economy Isea said that he did not know if the reports for which they were paid existed, that it was rather due to discrimination of revolutionary political propaganda) that have not been declared. That is criminal and investigated. And what no judge can refuse to investigate so as not to commit prevarication. That is what someone should say that people are being investigated not for being part of a political party but for not paying taxes for what they have not received”.
– Francisco Martinez: I agree with everything but we must let them talk and talk… Because they will end up messing up. And the taxation argument is good for Inda [director de OKDiario]etc…
In April 2016, the acting head of the UDEF, José Manuel García Catalán, and chief inspector José Ángel Fuentes Gago, Pino’s right-hand man, went to New York to meet with Rafael Isea, also a former Venezuelan minister. In that meeting, the recording of which would be released years later, Fuentes Gago assured Isea that he was traveling with “a mandate” from the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy. “If he helps us so that Podemos does not reach the Government, the better for everyone,” said Fuentes Gago. Isea accepted and the police report never reached a judge, but it was published in ‘Abc’ two months before the June 2016 general elections. Years later, Isea claimed that the police officers told him that his testimony would not be made public (in the end, he was identified by name and surname) and they promised to get his family out of Venezuela and offer them a “new life”, something that never happened.
“Journalists are beginning to say that it is crappy”
Among the messages exchanged there is also a reference to false information about an alleged bank account opened by Pablo Iglesias to which the government of Nicolás Maduro would have transferred $272,000. The information was published on May 6, 2016 by OKDiario with the headline ‘The Government of Maduro paid $272,000 to Pablo Iglesias in the tax haven of Grenadines in 2014’, and different media, including La Sexta, published afterward that Police were investigating that alleged wire transfer after receiving information from the DEA.
Days later, Eugenio Pino wrote to number two of the Interior: “Copy of the deposit is the same as the check [sic]. Henry Ramos is the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. They’re looking for the check.” Martínez replied: “Well, better, because the journalists are beginning to say that it is crappy. The attorney general already has it. Looks like she’s opening errands. Are you still convinced that it is good?” He asked, to which Pino replied that “totally” and that he should not doubt it.
“You have to make a lot of noise”
Another part of the messages shows the maneuvers to attack the Catalan pro-independence political leaders. elDiario.es revealed on November 30, 2014 the plot created in the Deputy Operations Directorate of the Police to track down compromising information from pro-independence politicians, without judicial control and with the aim of wearing down, with the collaboration of certain media, the secessionist movement.
On October 27, 2015, Pino and Martínez spoke via WhatsApp about the search ordered by the National Court of 15 homes and companies of the Pujol clan. The number two of the Interior writes to the policeman that “you have to be on top of today to make a lot of noise.” “A lot of UIP ” staging “, etc. Let Fiti let you know, ”he tells her. Pino answers: “We have almost finished all the records. It remains to conclude one whose car has had to be rectified. The result, considering the limitations implied by court orders, is reasonably satisfactory. I think we will have new data that will allow us to advance the investigation.” Martinez’s response: “Hopefully! Tomorrow the Catalan press is at its peak. The judge is going to be pissed off. Let him not take us by surprise ”.
According to information from El País, in March 2016, Pino and Martínez talked about the CatDem Foundation, of the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, registered by court order six months earlier. The operational chief of the Police tells him that they have information about Convergència accounts in Switzerland “in the name of Fòrum Barcelona and Catdem”. The Interior officer asks if there are papers and Pino replies that they will have them.
A few weeks later the following conversation takes place:
– Eugene Pino: I have the information of CATDEM FUNDACIÓN, but they no longer have an account in Switzerland, they canceled it in 2013, in full investigation of 3%. The day of the cancellation they had 625,612 euros. They tell me that the information is absolutely reliable, but since they have seen me reluctant to accept this data without further ado. They suggest some verification that we would have to do in Switzerland, like the other time.
– Francisco Martinez: Sounds reliable to you?
– Eugene Pino: Totally.
There was no further information about the alleged Catdem account.