The investigation of the Plus Ultra case reveals that the alleged business dealings between businessman Julio Martínez Martínez and Domingo Amaro Chacón in the purchase and sale of Venezuelan oil are not limited to the deals they closed between late 2023 and early 2024, in which a company of the Chinese Communist Party and a “Swiss trader” tried to buy crude oil thanks to the intervention of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the Venezuelan Government. A UDEF document indicates that “the commercial link” extends from at least September 2021, according to an analysis of the messages exchanged between both. The agents list several of the alleged operations: “a gold export,” sale of QWANT shares, “the successive transformation into other currencies of cash euros in Caracas,” or the “implementation of a route for the delivery of physical product” “amounting to several million.”
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Likewise, the document cites other projects they discussed, also according to the intercepted conversations: the business of “those of the ‘Egyptian,’” referring to the ”Minerven Project and La Tortuga Project,” “the plans of those of the Desert” (this with the specific mention of “officializing the diplomatic relationship with the opening of the UAE embassy in Venezuela), another called ”Yellow Marketing” which, according to the agents, is a “presumed reference to gold” and “the Western Atlas Resources project,” also known as the Loma de Niquel project.
The Hispanic-Venezuelan brothers Amaron Chacón, Domingo and Guillermo Alfredo, created Inteligencia Prospectiva in January 2020, one of the companies pointed out by the National Court judge José Luis Calama in the Plus Ultra investigation where Zapatero is charged. Inteligencia Prospectiva transferred more than a million euros between 2020 and 2024 to three entities within the former president’s orbit: the company of his daughters, the company of his friend Julio Martínez Martínez, and a think tank whose advisory board Zapatero chaired until 2025. The company’s life has been marked by constant losses and constant capital increases (with substantial contributions from partners). According to the accounts, it only earned an average annual income of 30,000 euros since 2022 (the first two years they did not declare profits) with a single employee. Despite this, more than 2.5 million euros moved through its accounts in total, something “incongruous” that the judge highlighted this week in his order. This is how Judge Calama defines Inteligencia Prospectiva: “It clearly exceeds the capacities and functions typical of a common entrepreneur, involving itself in top-level state matters that have nothing to do with the usual operation of a commercial company.”
“The Leader met with them in China”
Domingo is the brother who appears in the communications intercepted by the Spanish justice system. The UDEF reports reveal that he acted as the intermediary connecting buyers of Venezuelan oil with the network. The judge suspects that in this and other dealings attributed to the plot — purchase and sale of gold, shares, currency operations, delivery routes — Zapatero participated in one way or another, charged with influence peddling and other related crimes. The scheme presented by the agents is that Amaro Chacón sent messages to Zapatero through Julio Martínez, including those related to the Chinese Communist Party company and the Swiss operator Philip Apikian.
In these message exchanges, Amaro keeps the former socialist leader informed “of the news,” which included meetings with “the Lady” and ”President M.” Not only that, Amaro also asks him to intervene to facilitate meetings or visits involving members of the then Venezuelan Government. “We totally agree, President, although only you could make the visit to Blue be included again on the agenda,” is one of the messages, dated March 2023.
One of the UDEF reports indicates that the “Swiss trader” and “the Chinese” pressured for weeks for the plot to help close a deal with the Venezuelan Government for the purchase and sale of petcoke, a byproduct of crude oil refining that has value as fuel. “Philippe Apikian and the Chinese ready to buy ships. Ready to travel to meet with the Lady [Delcy Rodríguez, according to the agents] and the Minister of Petroleum, but they need information on what product the letter of intent is made for. The Lady is the one who manages the direct allocation of the ships. “Yes. They are ready to buy. They pressured all December,” is a fragment of the intercepted conversation. In that conversation, Chacón warns Martínez that the Chinese company “is a state group of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], for the purchase of raw materials. The Leader met with them in China.”
The report also includes two letters sent by the interested parties. One from China International Cultural Technology Resource Group Co Ltd addressed to the office of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, where it expresses interest in “obtaining information about governments, public sector companies, and individuals related to raw materials.” The other letter is dated January 23, 2024, addressed to a generic recipient and “signed by Philip Apikian on behalf of Swissoil Tradind S. A. indicating their interest in buying petcoke from Venezuela in batches of 50,000 tons.”
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