One of the many unknowns surrounding the trajectory of Victor de Aldama – a businessman at the epicenter of several of the alleged corruption scandals that plague the Government and that Justice is investigating – focuses on the decoration that the Civil Guard awarded him in recognition of his services. A proposal raised by the unit dedicated to the fight against terrorism and which was presented to him in an act where, in a personal capacity, some of his “deep values” and “altruism” were highlighted.
This is the medal of merit and was awarded in September 2022, two years before Aldama sat before the National Court to explain the alleged payments to socialist positions and his participation in the purchase of masks during the pandemic investigated by the Justice. According to the documentation, the decoration was at the proposal of the then director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, and was ratified by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
On what grounds was such recognition granted? Colonel Francisco Vázquez, head of the UCE-2 of the Civil Guard, a unit specialized in the fight against jihadist terrorismhas been the one who has shed the most light on these events. In the medal ceremony itself, he alluded to Aldama’s “deep values” and “profound tributes to our nation, to Spain.”
More recently, in December 2024, the same colonel appeared at the Senate Investigative Committee on contracts, licenses, concessions, aid and other operations of the Government and the public sector, related to the intermediation of Koldo García Izaguirre and the other people linked to the plot investigated in Operation Delorme. There he delved into Aldama’s relationship with the Armed Institute.
Among other reasons, he defended that Aldama was awarded – before all the facts for which he was being tried were known – for his efforts related to solidarity acts promoted by the Armed Institute, including a popular race to raise funds for research into rare diseases and the delivery of proceeds from a sporting event for the treatment of an agent’s daughter who suffered from leukemia. He also spoke of the collaboration he provided in a hunt in which members of the American CIA and FBI participated.
The file
What are the specific reasons why Aldama was awarded the Civil Guard medal of merit? What does the office hours What supports this decision? They got up He made a request to the Ministry of the Interior through Transparency requesting the document. But the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska rejects this request based on a possible “harm to public safety.”
In the response, on the letterhead of the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Guard, he remembers that the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard Corps “rewards actions or conduct of extraordinary importance, which result in the prestige of the Corps and the interest of the Homeland”: “This reward, of a civil nature, may be granted to the Civil Guard personnel and any other person or entity that becomes a creditor of it.”
Also remember that the the words internal INT/2008/2012on the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard, regulates the forms, requirements and procedure for granting said recognition, in its different categories: “The proposals for its granting may be ordinary and extraordinary, formulated by the Head of the unit of the Civil Guard to whom the fact that is the subject of the proposal directly affects, who will be responsible for its assessment and classification.”
The recognition of Víctor de Aldama fell within the ordinary category. And, therefore, it was proposed on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the Civil Guard and the festival of Our Lady of the Virgin of Pilar, patron saint of the Armed Institute: “By virtue of the above, the Minister of the Interior granted the Cross with White badge of the aforementioned Order to Mr. Víctor Gonzalo Aldama Delgado, at the ordinary proposal of a Civil Guard Unit,” details the response sent to Transparency and to which this newspaper has had access.
“Detriment to security”
However, it rejects the possibility of delving into the reasons for this recognition or of providing the file on which the medal of merit awarded to Aldama is based, whom the UCO today classifies as “corrupting nexus” of the plot that Justice is investigating.
“The information requested is within the assumption contemplated in letter d), section 1, of article 14 of Law 19/2013, of December 9, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, since the dissemination of the same would mean a harm to public safety“, alleges the letter in its legal bases. “We consider it appropriate to deny access to the required public information for the reasons and reasons argued,” he concludes.
An award, however, that now causes discomfort within the Ministry of the Interior. Official sources from the department express their intention to withdraw it and assure that the legal formulas for such a purpose are already being studied.
Source: www.vozpopuli.com
