Those were turbulent times. It was November 2024 and Nicolás Maduro was holed up inside Miraflores Palace, the Venezuelan presidential residence. When any foreign leader hinted to him that it might be time to leave power, he answered with a single word: “Never.” The police and intelligence services under his command detained thousands of people who had taken to the streets to protest the electoral fraud that Chavismo had perpetrated in plain view of the world. Protesters had pulled down bronze statues of Hugo Chávez across the country. Prisons were overflowing. The nation was on the brink of rebellion or a bloodbath — or both.

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It was in March 2020, with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, that Plus Ultra executives began considering the need to “access the aid” and, at the same time, to knock on the right doors at the “political level” to obtain it. A conversation between the airline’s then owner and vice president, Rodolfo Reyes and Julio Martínez Sola, respectively, shows the involvement —at least in an advisory capacity at an early stage— of Delcy Rodríguez, who was formerly Venezuela’s number two. “Delcy, have her call Ábalos,” the first told the second. “Or someone with Zapatero,” added his vice president.

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