The general said that the "mediator" caught him in his "spider web": He offered him a salary of 5,000 euros plus expenses

He assures that Navarro "delighted" him with meals that he organized with businessmen with the aim of extracting money from them and extorting them

MADRID, 2 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa indicated in his statement before the examining magistrate of the 'Mediator case' on February 16 that he met the investigated Marcos Antonio Navarro Tacoronte by chance in a restaurant, and that in a first meeting he offered him a position as director of institutional relations in a photovoltaic company that he wanted to set up in the Canary Islands together with the businessman Antonio Bautista -also accused-. "The working conditions were 5,000 euros and a protocol expense card," he said, in addition to asserting that the "mediator" wove "a spider web" with the purpose of defrauding businessmen.

This was explained in his statement before the instructor, whose recording Europa Press has had access to, in which he stated that he was offered that position because he knows "many people" from when he was posted to Las Palmas for four years. In addition, the general pointed out, to questions from the judge, that he seemed "perfect."

As stated in the summary, the 'Mediator' plot would be headed by the former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo; his nephew Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez, general director of Livestock; the General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas; and the Canarian businessman Antonio Navarro Taraconte, also known as the "mediator".

Judge Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres, right at the beginning of Espinosa's statement, asked him, surprised if he did not find this job offer strange, which came from two people he hardly knew, and the general replied that he did not want to retire to his home and that possibility just appeared. "They tell me that when they retire they can offer me that possibility, I didn't want to go home in retirement and I grabbed that first circumstance. Then it didn't materialize at all," he recalled.

Previously, he indicated that this first casual meeting with the "mediator" occurred while he was smoking a Canarian cigar outside a restaurant, and that after engaging in a conversation, telephone numbers were exchanged. Navarro Tacoronte explained that he traveled to Madrid two or three times a month "because he worked with a deputy." When the general was asked if it was then that Espinosa met the former PSOE deputy implicated in the case, the general answered emphatically that he was not: "I did not know him, nor do I know him now either."

When the judge put the meals with businessmen in restaurants like La Trainera or La Quinta on the table and asked him about the purpose of them, the general pointed out that Navarro Tacoronte organized them "simply to introduce people into this spider web that was building". "The spider web that he had built was that he had contacts in the Canarian community, that he had me as a contact (...), and from time to time he brought businessmen from whom he really asked for money and extorted saying that he knew So-and-so and so-and-so," he explained, later emphasizing that he "was enticed by this, let's go eat or have a drink."

Given this response, the magistrate reproached him for not questioning at any time that he could be part of a network and that his function was to give the network an appearance of seriousness, but the general stressed that the businessmen "never" asked anything directly from he. As for the efforts that he would have made so that important businessmen from the Canary Islands would meet with Bautista to try to install solar panels --something that did not come to fruition--, he explained that he did them because he wanted him to give him work after retirement. "That is why I made an effort to try to get him to meet with people from the Lopesan group, but I did not promote the hiring by forcing anyone," he added.

In addition, regarding these efforts, the general confessed to the judge that they occurred because the plot wanted him to have "an act of goodwill" by introducing them to businessmen. For this reason, he called on "two good friends" so that Bautista would give them a presentation of his plate installation project. "They studied it and concluded that they were not interested, and that was the end of the project," he recalled.

The general confirmed three meetings with the plot, two in Gran Canaria and one in Fuerteventura and said he did not know who paid for his flights and stays, although he did point out that they explained to him that they did not want it to cost him money and that therefore "they paid plane ticket and hotel. Regarding whether they also paid for her lover's expenses, the general denied that this was the case because she lives in Las Palmas and they did not pay for her ticket. "And the hotel?" Asked the judge, to which the general replied that his room was double.

Immediately afterwards, the magistrate reproached him for accepting these economic favors while he was active in search of a future job, but Espinosa replied that at the time of the trips his status as general had been suspended, he was in special services and therefore was not bound by legal impositions of the Civil Guard. "You don't see any inconvenience to paying for flights, meals and hotels?" Questioned the judge, to which she replied that "they were friends and offered themselves as a recruiting phase" so that he would go to work with them.

About the meeting held in Fuerteventura, the general explained that only Adelaida, his lover, attended it, because Navarro Tacoronte and Bautista "wanted to meet her to interview her in case she worked in the future company, to see her physical conditions, her professional characteristics ". In line, I confirm that he did tell the businessmen that if he ended up working with them, his lover would have to run the administrative part of the company, and that if he charged 5,000 euros, "they would give her 3,000 euros" of salary.

During his statement, Espinosa reiterated on several occasions that although he was introduced to businessmen such as Raúl Gómez Gordo, he actually did "nothing for anyone." Specifically, regarding this businessman, he explained that he told him if he could help him with a project in Peru, but he did not.