Carvajal detailed income, financial operators, and the former Spanish president's ties to the Chavista structure
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The United States has once again put José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero under scrutiny, as authorities from the Southern District of New York are pushing for the initiation of criminal proceedings against the former Spanish president after Hugo "El Pollo" Carvajal provided documentation and testimonies considered "crucial" regarding Zapatero's relationship with the power structure of Chavismo and the financial mechanisms of Nicolás Maduro's regime.
The U.S. justice system is evaluating the status of "necessary collaborator" within a network that Washington now openly describes as a "narco-state." The information provided by Carvajal — extradited from Spain in 2023 and who confessed to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism offenses — points to alleged payments to Zapatero from the Venezuelan government through PDVSA, in addition to operations linked to the energy sector and a network of financial intermediaries under the supervision of the powerful Jorge Rodríguez. Zapatero junto a Nicolás Maduro.
The former chief of Chavista military intelligence provided precise details about amounts, financial routes, and operators used to benefit Zapatero's activities in Venezuelan territory. That cooperation, which seeks to reduce his sentence and avoid a life sentence in a federal prison, caused a massive volume of documents that forced the postponement of his sentencing twice, now rescheduled for February 12.
The United States has already activated cooperation mechanisms with Spain to track the increase in the former president's assets and verify his financial movements. The case is being processed in parallel to the lawsuit filed in Florida last August, based on the RICO Act, the U.S. law aimed at prosecuting criminal organizations and transnational drug trafficking networks. That law allows authorities to track anyone who may have contributed directly or indirectly to operations linked to Chavismo's criminal apparatus.
Possible scenarios are now being discussed in Washington: from "mild" economic sanctions to the full inclusion of Zapatero on the OFAC list, which would mean the freezing of assets in U.S. territory, a commercial ban, and migration restrictions. Even the issuance of an international arrest warrant is on the table. Zapatero, ex presidente español.
The Trump administration never hid its opposition to Zapatero's role in the Venezuelan process. U.S. officials question whether his participation served as a mechanism to legitimize Maduro's regime and highlight his attempt to promote a transition in which Delcy Rodríguez would temporarily take charge of the country.
Far from fading, the pressure is increasing. For the first time, the socialist former president faces the real possibility of moving from the political to the judicial arena in the context of the largest international investigation into Chavismo's criminal machinery.
