“No, never, ever.” The one who was general director of the Civil Guard until last September 17Leonardo Marcos, has repeatedly denied that he knew or met at any time with Koldo García, former assistant and trusted person of the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos and one of the main people involved in the alleged corruption plot that penetrated several public administrations before, during and after the 2020 pandemic. Marcos, who appeared this Monday at the investigative commission of the Koldo case, has also denied knowing Commander Rubén Villalba, commander of the armed institute that allegedly provided encrypted phones to another of the key characters in the case, the businessman Víctor de Aldamaand charged for them.
Leonardo Marcos – who was testifying by videoconference from Washington, where he was assigned to the Spanish embassy after his dismissal as head of the armed institute – has also denied “totally, absolutely and radically” that he had alerted Koldo García that he was being investigated. He did so after several senators expressly asked him about the content of the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, which recorded a telephone conversation between Koldo García and Commander Villalba; in that conversation, the first claimed that they were investigating him and that he knew it because the now former general director had told him so. “That involvement is false,” he said.
“I don’t know him, I haven’t seen him in my life, I haven’t met with him, we have never sent a (message) WhatsApp I haven’t even written an email, I’ve never spoken to him. Never. I don’t know him. I don’t know if it’s clear to you,” Marcos said in response to Vox senator Pelayo Gordillo, flatly denying that he was the author of that alleged tip-off. He then stressed: “I could never have given him any information, much less information that I didn’t know.” Marcos has attributed the complaints that two associations of civil guards, Jucil and AUGC, have filed against him due to this fact, to “revenge” for the disciplinary proceedings that during his time at the head of the armed institute he opened against several of the leaders of these organizations. .
In his responses to deny his connection, the former senior Interior official has not only questioned the credibility of the interlocutors of that conversation and, specifically, of Koldo – “the researchers have clarified the tendency of certain people involved to boast of relationships.” that they don’t have,” he pointed out, “but he has even wondered why the UCO agents have included it in their report. “The question may not be why this man (in reference to Ábalos’s former advisor) raises my name, the question is why with all those weak indications my name ends up in that report,” he posed.
It has not been the only time that he has distanced himself from the actions of his subordinates, in contrast to what his superior had done last Thursday, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who in his appearance Also in this Senate investigation commission he put “his hand on the fire for all the officials” of his department. Marcos has avoided supporting his right-hand man in the general direction, General Manuel Llamas, deputy operational director (DAO) of the armed institute, and from whom an alleged message addressed to another high command asking for information about the investigation has emerged. “I am unaware of these facts and consequently I cannot comment on them,” he simply responded.
The former director general of the Civil Guard has insisted that he was never informed of the investigation of the Koldo case nor of any other – “among the director’s duties is not the timely and detailed monitoring of the many investigations of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard” – and that he did not read any report on the case – “it is not my habit to read reports that do not They are addressed to me”―. He has also denied that his current assignment at the Spanish embassy in Washington as an information attaché is a reward for his work at the head of the armed institute. “No prize, no silence, nothing to buy, nothing to hide,” he remarked in an irritated tone that has been repeated at other times during his appearance.
Marcos has also emphasized that he did not know Commander Villalba – “do you expect me to know all the agents of the Civil Guard?” He responded in an angry tone to PP senator Ana Beltrán when she questioned him – and said that the first news she had about him was when she was informed of his alleged involvement in the case, which caused her to agree to his suspension of functions and, subsequently, promoted his dismissal. “It is the only relationship I have had with this man,” he added. The most tense moments have been experienced when Senator Beltrán has accused him of lying on several occasions. “I have always answered truthfully,” Marcos stressed when the president of the commission offered him a last intervention.
