UNWTO is now UN-Tourism, and there seems to have been an even more significant incentive for UNWTO or better UN-Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili to push for this questionable rebranding recently.
The European Commission is investigating the potential misuse of EU funds in Spain’s Koldo corruption scandal, also known as Operation Delorme.
In March 2024, the Spanish parliament approved a new committee to investigate the case.
Operation Delorme is an illegal organization that benefited from health contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.
This scandal revolves around large sums of money in commissions connected to purchasing face masks during the pandemic, which is linked to embezzling millions of Euros involving high-level officials. The European Commission has shared pertinent details with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
“The Commission will take all necessary steps to protect the EU budget and has zero tolerance against fraud,” a spokesperson for the European executive told Euractiv’s partner EFE on Wednesday.
José Luis Ábalos still denies any involvement in what is known as Operation Delorme. José Luis Ábalos Meco is a Spanish politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, serving as a Member of the Congress of Deputies since 2009. He served as minister in Spain from 2018 to 2021 in the cabinets chaired by President Pedro Sánchez.
The key suspect, Koldo García Izaguirre, was known as the right-hand man of Ábalos, who was transport minister until he was removed without reason in 2021.
Abalos admits that Aldama, arrested in the ‘Koldo case,’ frequently appeared at the Spanish Ministry of Transport when Abalos was a minister.
Aldama was made the Honorary Consul of Georgia, apparently arranged by the UNWTO (now UN-Tourism) Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, who himself served as the Georgia Ambassador to Spain, Andorra, and Morocco before he won a controversial election to become UNWTO Secretary-General on Jan 1, 2018.
The diplomatic mission is listed as the Georgian Honorary Consulate in Zamora
Calle de Riego, 13. 1º B 49004, Zamora, Spain with an email vdaldama@gmail.com
Who is Who?
A clear UNWTO link to Crime:
The Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization is a “close” friend of Miguel Hildago, a UNWTO (now UN-Tourism) Executive from Mexico. Hidalgo was later named CEO
The alleged ringleader of the Koldo plot, Víctor Gonzalo de Aldama, emerged three weeks ago as a critical person in the investigation.
The president of Zamora C.F., detained by the Central Operative Unit (UCO), was one of the businessmen who allegedly benefited from the illegal mask scam during COVID allegedly negotiated at the official residence of the former Minister of Transport, José Luis Abalos.
Ábalos, with whom Zurab forged a close personal relationship, was seen attending the businessman’s 60th birthday party at his restaurant.
Air Europe Rescue
This served as the gateway to the Ministry’s offices, where he held meetings as part of the Government delegation. It was also the prelude to his role in the negotiations before the rescue of Air Europa, as reported before his claims were revealed.
However, one of the most surprising parts of the scam must have been Aldama’s status as honorary consul of Georgia, which was granted to him in June 2021 and was withdrawn just a week ago, in March 2024, according to diplomatic sources.
The Honorary Consul allowed Spanish Foreign Affairs to issue him the diplomatic DNI, which holders show on their trips and international contacts as support for their businesses. It brings them certain benefits in terms of visas or tax exemptions, depending on the country they deal with.
The Aldama Honorary Consul of Georgia’s involvement
Before obtaining this status, Aldama already had the title of a delegate of Spain in Latin America for an international human rights mission, a qualification supposedly granted by the diplomatic corps.
Aldama presented himself as a commercial link between the Kingdom of Spain and the Republic of Mexico, which he pointed out in his professional letter of this introduction.
The question is how Aldama was named Honorary Consul of Georgia in Zamora (Spain), where, according to Embassy data, only ten Georgian citizens are registered in the entire province.
The Answer lies with UNWTO Secretary-General Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili.
The answer lies with the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili.
According to the sources consulted by The OBJECTIVE newspaper in Spain, Zurab has been Javier Hidalgo’s personal friend for years. “He introduced Aldama before the pandemic, and through him, Aldama obtained the title of honorary consul of Georgia in Zamora.”
Not in vain, Pololikashvili influenced the diplomatic sphere of his country.
Before becoming Secretary General of the UNWTO, he was the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Georgia to Spain, the Principality of Andorra, and the Kingdom of Morocco and the permanent representative of Georgia on the UNWTO Council.
Questionable Election to UNWTO Secretary General
Zurab used this to put together his candidacy to lead the United Nations World Tourism Organization and clearly used his former position to maneuver his successful election, what many say defrauding his component, Dr. Walter Mzembi, the former Minister of Tourism for Zimbabwe.
With Aldama, he also shares his love for football and managing name-brand football clubs since Pololikashvili was also CEO of FC Dinamo Tbilisi, a professional football team in Georgia.
After Zurab was appointed secretary general of the UN Agency for Tourism, he met Hidalgo and formed a close personal friendship inseparable from his business relations.
“They became close, traveling together and doing business together,” sources explain. The result of this was the Globalia subsidiary, Wakalua, a tourism innovation hub designed by Globalia and the UNWTO, which they both devised and strengthened ties with the Spanish president’s wife, Begoña Gómez.
According to Spanish news sources, a company that was registered in March 2019 was already created a year earlier, in 2018, precisely when the Georgian diplomat and former politician Zurab Pololikashvili was appointed head of the UNWTO.
Since his arrival, Globalia has been a frequent guest at the organization’s annual meetings.
At the XXIII UNWTO General Assembly held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in September 2019, Globalia was the only Spanish company invited to the Russian city, where Aldama, Javier Hidalgo, and Begoña Gómez held their first private meeting to discuss matters related to the businesses of both parties.
After that first meeting in Saint Petersburg, other events followed at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, such as the celebration of the IE African Center startup awards, sponsored by Wakalua, which was attended by the wife of the Spanish President, Begoña Gómez, the CEO of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo, and Zurab Pololikashvili.
As head of the UNWTO, Pololikashvili was, together with Globalia, the promoter of the Wakalua hub that sponsored the awards. Begoña Gómez was the director and event organizer of the IE African Center.
It is striking that this collaboration occurred just three months after the Spanish president’s wife asked Hidalgo for help promoting the Institute at this private meeting at the Hotel in Saint Petersburg.
The following year, in September 2020, the UNWTO Executive Council met in Georgia.
Aldama appeared on the attendees list as a “Globalia director” despite not having a presence on the company’s board and being only an external advisor whom the Hidalgo holding company hired in two cases.
The criminal Delorme case recorded that 200 million dollars were obtained for Air Europa in Venezuela and another funding for the airline’s rescue operation after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The corporate director, Lisandro Menu Marque, also attended the UNWTO’s Executive Council Meeting in Georgia, accompanying Aldama, who represented Globalia. Neither Gómez nor Hidalgo participated in this meeting.
This Executive Council meeting was seen as a critical event, a way for Zurab to smooth and manipulate the way for his re-election, making it impossible for any component to win. This time, he defrauded his only unexpected component, HE Mai Al Khalifa from Bahrain.
HE Mai Al Khalifa
A year after their first meeting in Russia, three months after the meetings at the Globalia headquarters where the rescue of Air Europa was discussed, and a month before the Government formally announced the rescue in November 2020, the objective of the Air Europa parent company had been more than met.
According to airline sources, in July, they requested a bailout of 400 million, and in October, they increased this figure by 75 million more on the recommendation of the SEPI (State Society of Industrial Participations), the largest bailout granted to date to a private company.
But it was not until June 2021, six months later, when Víctor de Aldama was appointed honorary consul of Georgia in Zamora.
He obtained a diplomatic DNI that allowed him to enter Georgia after two years of relationship with whoever was the plenipotentiary ambassador of Georgia in Spain.
Parallel to that, Javier Hidalgo and José Luis Ábalos were dismissed as Minister of Transport.
His advisor, Koldo García Izaguirre, had opened the doors of the Ministry of Transport and many others who would contract with his company.
Management Solutions, on the recommendation of the same minister who was now forced to leave the PSOE Organization Secretariat a few days later.
Why is UNWTO now UN- Tourism – a more significant reason?
To unlink from this criminal scandal may have been an intention of the UNWTO Secretary-General to rename this UN-affiliated agency recently to UN Tourism. The former UNWTO Secretary-General Frangialli may have even had a bigger reason to be upset.