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Delcy and the suitcases…To understand Delcy Rodríguez, you have to go back before she became the face of a collapsing regime, to a night in Madrid that exposed how she moved through the world…By 2020, Delcy Rodríguez was already sanctioned by the European Union. She was officially banned from entering EU territory because of her role in repression, corruption, and the dismantling of democracy in Venezuela. On paper, Europe was closed to her, but on January of that year, her private jet landed at Madrid’s Barajas airport after midnight. Spain’s Minister of Transport at the time, José Luis Ábalos, went to the airport in the early hours of the morning to meet her personally.Reports from witnesses soon emerged that she was not travelling light; there were suitcases, a significant number of them. The luggage was handled as diplomatic cargo and shielded from normal customs controls; no official explanation was given about what was being transported, who it belonged to, or why it required special treatment. So… a sanctioned official from an authoritarian regime was allowed to land in an EU capital with her private jet, she was met by the Spanish Minister of Transport, she then dropped 40 suitcases and took off.Years later, Spain’s largest corruption investigation is currently underway exposing networks of political intermediaries, influence peddling, commissions, and protected access at the highest levels of government. Different cases, different names, but the same political ecosystem, and once again, Delcy Rodríguez’s name is tied to it all.That night at Barajas reveals who Delcy Rodríguez has always been; a figure protected by systems of corruption that extend beyond Venezuela, into the heart of Europe.The question in everyone’s mind in Spain is, what was in those suitcases? 🤨🤨🤨