Spanish court backs Zapatero probe into 200,000-euro Bolivia payment

Court keeps the Bolivia strand open

The Sala de lo Penal of the Audiencia Nacional has dismissed an appeal by former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, clearing the way for judge José Luis Calama to examine a suspected influence-peddling deal in Bolivia. The ruling, reported on 10 November 2026, concerns a payment of 200,000 euros that the former Socialist leader allegedly received. Zapatero's defence had asked the court to strike from the file a police report that linked that money to his dealings with Bolivian authorities. The judges rejected that request in an order that sides with the investigating magistrate. The defence had wanted the case confined to the rescue of the airline Plus Ultra, while the court says the Bolivia line forms part of the proceedings.

The payment and the police report

The police report, dated June 2026, came from the economic crime unit of the National Police. It says Zapatero took part in efforts to mediate with, or influence, Bolivia's public administration on behalf of the Peruvian Gloria group in several multimillion-dollar disputes, and it points to a 200,000-euro payment described as remuneration. Investigators suspect the money was routed through Focus Social Research, a company whose work they believe was disguised as consultancy. Sources differ on who paid: some name the Gloria group, others the Focus company. El Periódico reports that Zapatero met former Bolivian president Luis Arce to help Focus avoid a 100 million dollar sanction, a claim the other outlets do not repeat. The police report is the document that set the Bolivia strand in motion.

The defence and the court's reasoning

Zapatero's lawyer, Víctor Moreno Catena, argued that the report came from a general investigation that no judge had authorised, violating his client's privacy and amounting to a prospective inquiry into his professional life. He warned that the seized material allowed a precise reconstruction of the former prime minister's movements over more than six years. The judges disagreed, saying the data came from devices seized in a May 2026 search of Zapatero's office, which pointed to a possible influence-peddling offence before Bolivian authorities in favour of the Gloria group. They also rejected the claim that the review of payments made through Focus was a general, indiscriminate search of his life. The court put its position in these words:

“The inquiries into the payments were fully covered by an apparent connection to the facts under investigation and cannot in any way be called prospective.”

What comes next

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office argues that the payments received by Zapatero are relevant to the case, which also examines other possible financial offences. The order lets the inquiry into the Bolivia payments continue under Calama, who had already refused to remove the police report from the file. The court stresses that the facts still have to be proven, and that any findings could be attributed either to the organisation first investigated or to Zapatero acting alone or with others. The ruling does not establish guilt, and no charge over the Bolivia payments has been reported in the articles. The investigation will now proceed on the basis of the Bolivia strand the court has confirmed.