Left-Wing Party Podemos Received Funds from Hugo Chávez

Former Official for Chávez Leaks Documents Showing Money Paid to Spain's "Podemos" Movement

Sabrina Martín

Rafael Isea, former Minister of Finance in Venezuela, said April 12 that Podemos was involved in illegal activity with Chavistas. (Politizen)

EspañolVenezuela’s former Minister of Finance Rafael Isea has come out saying former President Hugo Chávez paid Foundation Podemos US $7.6 million, which was never taxed.
Isea, who worked in Hugo Chávez’s regime, produced a document showing the former Venezuelan president’s approval of a payment for “political efforts and social movements” in Spain that would provide it with “political changes related to the Bolivarian government.”
According to the newspaper ABC, Isea identified the current leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, as “one of the advisors that, since 2007, has visited Venezuela frequently to participate in meetings and political training programs directed by various members of the Venezuela government.”



All of this was recounted by Isea on April 12 at the Spanish consulate in New York, where Spanish police are investigating possible illegal activity by Podemos.
Currently, the former minister is in the United States pending applications for political asylum. According to ABC, the witness said he was being persecuted by Venezuela, with the motive that he had reported terrorist and drug trafficking activities to senior members of the government.
Isea claimed payments for assessments were done frequently with “foreign money,” euros or dollars. But, as reported by ABC, the larger objective was not the assessments so much as affecting political influence of Spain.
The money paid to the foundation related to Podemos would serve, according to Chávez, as a way to strengthen the ties with representative of schools of thought on the left and fundamental anti-capitalists, who in Spain form a political and social force.
This May, Ok Diario published an article detailing how state money amounting to US $272,325 was paid to Iglesias in 2014.
According to Spanish media, Iglesias received that figure in his bank account in a St. Vincent and Granadinas tax haven, under the guise of payment for “social development assessments” in Venezuela.
According to the investigation, Rodolfo Clemente Marco Torres, current Minister of Economy, Finance and Banking in Venezuela, ordered the transfer, and then-National Treasurer Carlos Erik Malpica Flores was charged with executing the order.
Source: ABC.