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The Spanish National Police have just arrested in Madrid the president and owner of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez, and the CEO, Roberto Roselli, in an operation for alleged money laundering that raises questions about the million-dollar bailout received by the airline and its ties to Venezuela and contracts that directly impact Cuba. From the island, this case is important because Plus Ultra has been a key player in flights, medical missions, and connections between Havana, Madrid, and Caracas.
Who are the National Police and UDEF?
To provide context, the UDEF is the specialized unit for economic and fiscal crimes. It is involved in cases of corruption, illegal commissions, money laundering, and schemes related to dirty money. If the UDEF is raiding a company and arresting its executives, it is because the matter is not a mere administrative irregularity, but rather a potential case of large-scale corruption or money laundering.
What is SEPI and why is it important to Plus Ultra?
The SEPI is the major public holding of the Spanish State: a group that manages the government's stakes in companies (energy, industry, media, etc.). During the pandemic, it was tasked with managing a Fund for the Support of the Solvency of Strategic Companies, endowed with billions to rescue "key" companies for the economy.
Through that fund, SEPI approved a bailout of 53 million euros for Plus Ultra in 2021: 19 million in conventional loans and 34 million in a participative loan (a type of credit that resembles an equity investment). That decision is the political and judicial origin of everything that is happening now, as economic media have detailed when discussing the controversial bailout of 53 million euros.
Why was the rescue so controversial?
Viewed from Cuba, it helps to understand why the bailout of Plus Ultra became a scandal in Spain: Plus Ultra was a tiny airline, with only a couple of operational planes and less than 0.1% of the Spanish market. No bank wanted to lend it money, even with public backing, but the State directly provided 53 million.
A large part of its business was concentrated in Venezuela and Cuba, not in the Spanish domestic market, and its shareholders included Venezuelan businessmen linked to the chavismo environment, identified by other countries for alleged corruption and money laundering. The opposition in Spain denounced that what was taking place was not the rescue of a strategic company, but rather the favoring of a marginal airline, closely tied to the regimes of Maduro and Díaz-Canel, using taxpayers' money.
Connection with Venezuela: Chavism and "Boliburgueses"
Plus Ultra ended up largely controlled by Venezuelan capital close to the political power in Caracas. In Venezuelan slang, there is talk of “boliburgueses”: businesspeople enriched during the Chavismo era, through contracts with the State, dealings with the gold from the Central Bank, imports, food programs, and other opaque operations.
Those Venezuelan partners provided Plus Ultra with something more valuable than money: political access. Thanks to this support, the airline gained routes and preferential treatment on the Madrid–Caracas route, at a time when Venezuela was increasingly isolated due to sanctions and economic issues, as documented in investigations about Plus Ultra's "undeclared baggage". The current suspicion is that Plus Ultra not only served to transport passengers but also to move and launder capital from Venezuelan corruption, using internal loans, shell companies, and accounts in tax havens.
Connection with Cuba: flights, Cubana, and missions
For Cuba, Plus Ultra has been more than just "another foreign airline": Cubana de Aviación has restricted the use of many planes in Europe due to safety and environmental issues, and is experiencing a chronic crisis with its fleet and spare parts. Plus Ultra occupied part of that space: it operated flights to Havana and signed cooperation and wet lease agreements that, in practice, made it a partner of Cubana to maintain connections with Europe.
A symbolic case: a Plus Ultra Airbus A340 operated a Madrid–Havana–Gabon flight with over 150 Cuban doctors, as part of the medical missions that are one of the main sources of income for the Cuban state, as specialized press revealed by uncovering that the rescued Plus Ultra also conducted business in Havana. In other words, the airline was part of the logistical machinery of one of the most sensitive and profitable businesses for the island's government.
How the UDEF became involved in the case
After the 2021 rescue, a court in Madrid opened a preliminary investigation to determine if public aid regulations had been violated and whether the reports justifying the rescue were "forced," in line with the concerns raised by headlines such as “Plus Ultra will not be able to repay the rescue”. That case was shelved for technical reasons, but it did not dispel the doubts.
Over time, prosecutors and investigators began cross-referencing data with other European countries: suspicious financial operations emerged between Plus Ultra and companies linked to Venezuelan corruption networks. Loans between companies in the same environment were detected, which were difficult to justify for commercial reasons, payments to companies in Panama, the Emirates, and other opaque financial centers, as well as movements of over one million euros linked to individuals already under investigation in Switzerland for money laundering connected to Venezuela, as reported in chronicles about the detained executives of Plus Ultra.
What is being investigated now exactly?
What is at stake is not just whether the bailout was "timely" or "ethical," but something more serious: whether Plus Ultra was used as a vehicle to launder money from Venezuelan corruption and whether part of the 53 million that the Spanish government provided ended up being used to regularize or pay back supposed loans from those networks, instead of saving jobs and real economic activity, as suggested by the tracking of the bailout money.
It is also being investigated how the airline's routes and contracts with Venezuela and Cuba fit into this network, including flights and services that directly impact the Cuban state economy. That’s why the unit in charge is the UDEF (economic and fiscal crime) and not just a simple administrative unit: this is a case of possible international corruption, with high-level political and financial connections.
How does this look “from Cuba”?
Viewed from Havana, the Plus Ultra case reveals three uncomfortable truths: that an airline crucial for travel, missions, and connections between Cuba and Europe may be deeply involved in a money laundering process in Spain; that the same networks of businessmen and officials supporting chavismo and the Cuban elite may have used shell companies in Europe to transfer and launder money; and that a portion of the European public bailout system during the pandemic ended up benefiting an economic and political apparatus linking Caracas and Havana.
What could happen in the short term
If the investigation forces Plus Ultra to reduce operations, cancel routes, or enter into bankruptcy proceedings, Cuba may temporarily lose seats and frequencies on specific routes (especially those where the Spanish airline provides the aircraft and operations). The impact will be greater because Cubana has only two operational planes and relies on leases like that of Plus Ultra to maintain part of its European connectivity.
If Iberia, Air Europa, German charters, and other operators maintain or increase their frequencies, the impact will be felt more in prices, layovers, and schedule stability than in a complete breakdown of the air bridge between Cuba and Europe.
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