Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of Venezuela, has launched legal proceedings against businessman Víctor de Aldama in Madrid. The move follows Aldama’s allegation that Rodríguez personally handed him a confidential envelope from Venezuela’s state oil company, Pdvsa, intended to finance Spain’s ruling PSOE party. Represented by the law firm led by former judge Baltasar Garzón, Rodríguez is seeking a public retraction from Aldama, who made the claim in a televised interview. The process began with a request for a conciliation hearing set for July 16, judicial sources confirmed to El Mundo. The hearing is a preliminary step before a possible defamation lawsuit.
The dispute centers on a sealed envelope bearing Pdvsa’s insignia, which Aldama submitted to Spain’s Audiencia Nacional in March. Investigators had known about the envelope, marked “confidential,” from a photograph found on Aldama’s phone during probes into the so-called Koldo and hydrocarbons cases. The image named Delcy Rodríguez as the recipient and Venezuela’s then oil minister, Manuel Quevedo Fernández, as the sender. The physical envelope remained missing until Aldama recently handed it to Judge Ismael Moreno, who is overseeing a secret investigation into alleged irregular financing of the PSOE. Its contents have not been made public.
Aldama, already under scrutiny for his role in a major hydrocarbons fraud, told prosecutors the envelope was linked to the oil business and alleged illegal funding of the PSOE and the Socialist International. He claimed Rodríguez delivered it to him, prompting Judge Santiago Pedraz to forward his testimony to Judge Moreno. The case remains under judicial secrecy, and details of the documents inside the envelope have not been disclosed.
The envelope allegation sits alongside a separate reported inquiry into Venezuelan crude-oil dealings involving Aldama and Rodríguez. El Mundo has reported that transactions involving hundreds of thousands of barrels from Pdvsa’s Amuay refinery went through intermediaries, including Geneva-based Pegaso Energy and Russia’s Kvart Ltd. The newspaper also said investigators examined Threema messages connected to the dealings and alleged efforts to route payments around international sanctions on Nicolás Maduro’s government. These oil transactions are separate from the disputed envelope. Investigators are examining their relevance to the financing inquiry.
El Mundo has also reported that Aldama exchanged messages with Rodríguez in October 2021, shortly before a planned meeting with Koldo García in Caracas. Rodríguez reportedly complained in those messages that she had lost “incidencia” over “PS,” which the newspaper interpreted as a reference to Spain’s president and the Socialist Party’s political leadership. The reporting places Aldama’s communications and commercial dealings with Venezuelan intermediaries within the wider investigation overseen by Judge Moreno.
The wider inquiry examines alleged irregularities in PSOE cash accounting and public-contract awards. El Mundo has reported that investigators are reviewing cash payments from 2017 to 2024 and have requested accounting and donation records from the party. Aldama reportedly gave two statements in the secret proceedings and claimed he channelled €1.8 million between 2019 and 2020. He linked the alleged payments to construction companies and public tenders, and reportedly submitted contract-award lists with handwritten annotations attributed to García. The amount is Aldama’s claim, not a judicially established total of illegal party financing. His testimony and the documents remain under judicial examination.
El Mundo has reported another alleged link between the oil business and the financing claims: a contract between Apamate de Flores and Aldama’s company Deluxe Fortune purportedly provided commercial cover for transferring funds from crude-oil operations to Spain. Information from the newspaper, Aldama told investigators that after the money arrived, he withdrew it in cash and delivered amounts to former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and García for party financing. Those claims come from Aldama and remain under examination, rather than constituting a final judicial finding.
Rodríguez’s legal team filed the conciliation request in Madrid’s civil court, a prerequisite to a formal defamation lawsuit. The court has set the hearing for July 16. Aldama’s lawyer must appear, but Aldama himself is not required to attend. If the parties reach no agreement, Rodríguez will proceed with a lawsuit for slander. Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced Aldama to four and a half years in prison for criminal organization and bribery. He now faces further legal challenges over his statements.
The dispute adds to recent legal and political confrontations involving Spain’s institutions and ruling parties. Regional leaders and the central government have also clashed over sensitive issues, including the recent standoff over Social Security powers in Euskadi, detailed in this report on regional-government disputes.
Spain’s Audiencia Nacional investigates complex political-financing and corruption cases, including those involving international actors. Rodríguez’s legal action could affect how Spanish courts handle cross-border allegations, particularly when they touch on sensitive political matters. The criminal investigation continues separately from the conciliation process. Investigators are examining the envelope allegation alongside separate inquiries into oil dealings and party financing.
