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The Objective brings quite a scoop today: PDVSA retained Baltasar Garzon to act in some corruption cases in the Spanish jurisdiction. The cases involve procurement at BARIVEN, and appear to focus, particularly, on Roberto Rincon and Abraham Shiera. Eulogio del Pino signed for PDVSA, establishing objectives and association with ILOCAD, which is Garzon's shop. Garzon was tasked with "Coordinación con la Fiscalía y Tribunales en España a fin de agilizar los trámites y avances del proceso judicial" (page 2). The Objective claims PDVSA's memo -dated 15 November 2016- is still valid. Garzon's coordination with Spain's Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía) was basically to engage in pillow talk with his girlfriend, Maria Dolores Delgado, otherwise known as Spain's Attorney General.
Sources consulted by this site claim Garzon and Delgado have been a thing for very many years. The relationship was hinted in fact -as early as July 2017- in conversations between disgraced commissar José Manuel Villarejo (with whom disbarred Garzon is involved) and his associates in the course of criminal activities. Ultimately and just like Villarejo, Garzon has been monetising his relationship with Delgado, while the latter escalated the ranks in Spain's judiciary.
There's an inescapable conflict of interests here. Eulogio del Pino is in jail pending trial, arrested in November 2017 on corruption charges. The €8,835,000 contract between ILOCAD and PDVSA therefore, approved by del Pino, could hardly be still valid, unless of course PDVSA's new management kept it. Rincon and Shiera have already been charged in connection to BARIVEN procurement and both pleaded guilty. Criminal associates of Rincon and Shiera have suffered similar fate. Curiously, Spain's judiciary has refused to extradite to the U.S. others involved in the case for which Garzon was retained, namely Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado.
Garzon has also been retained by Hugo Carvajal and by Alex Saab. The former is wanted in Venezuela, for treason, and in the U.S. in connection to drug trafficking, while the latter is Nicolas Maduro's favourite proxy and is also wanted in the U.S. for corruption. Arguably, PDVSA will honour any and all previous / existing contracts with Garzon as long as his office is involved with Saab. But then Garzon's little girlfriend ought to recuse herself from any and all cases involving Garzon, PDVSA and Venezuela. Is that the case?
