Rafael Louzán would probably quite like to be portrayed as a traditional family man. After all, he spent his entire life in his home region, Pontevedra, has a big family house, sent one of his two children to a private school, and has helped his cousins attain useful connections so that everyone can get ahead.
Except that Louzán’s family is “getting ahead” in the tobacco and drugs trafficking trade. A traditional trade in this part of Spain, but perhaps not the most honourable for a man who has been the president of the Galician province of Pontevedra for over 10 years.
Louzán’s rise to this high office – albeit in a small region – was nothing if not mercurial given that he never even finished school. But he knew from early age what it would take to get ahead in an area that is so riddled with drug barons that Spanish customs officer believe up to 90% off all illegal drug importing takes place on these Atlantic shores. He started his career as a night guard for a sports centre in Ribadumia, in the RiasBaixas area close to the Portuguese border which is well known for its fishing villages, vineyards, but also for trafficking and tobacco and drug smuggling.
Eventually, Louzán went into politics and would bolster his civil servant income by allowing smuggler José Prado Bugallo “SitoMiñanco” to store tobacco at his family home. The 46-year-old soon found that this dual lifestyle – politician and smugglers’ friend – was a profitable one. So much so, that he became friends with Mariano RajoyBrey, now prime minister of Spain, who would take the young Louzán under his wing and ensure he would rise to the office of president of Pontevedra in 2003, an office Rajoy himself held between 1983 and 1986.
While Louzán lost no time distributing useful jobs and government contracts amongst comrades of his Popular Party, which had been born out of Franco’s regime and built a network of independent communities living off companies that received government contracts, while looking after his family.
But keeping his friends and family in comfortable positions, was not always easy.
DanielMeañoCores, a cousin of Louzán’s wife, was sentenced to prison in 2007 for five years for participation in a drug distribution ring in the Basquacountry and other regions of Spain. Up until two years before his arrest, he had been employed as a plumber in a Pontevedra hospital, the Prince Felipe.
In 2010, Louzán had to defend the head of the Land and Infrastructure board, EvaristoJuncalCarreira, who was accused in the press of selling companies to strawmen of smuggler Marcial Dorado SitoMiñanco, who had in turn been accused of bribing the head of the Customs in Galicia, Hermelino Alonso.
And a year after that, another cousin brought negative headlines to Louzán’s doorstep. Novas da Galiza revealed in April 2011 that his cousin Juan AbalPiñeiro was a partner in financial management firm Desarrollo Global Atlantico alongside SeverinoReguera Varela, another Pontevedra politician, and Ramiro MartínezSeñoráns, a former drug smuggler. AbalPiñeiro conveniently also owns a hotel, where Rajoy stayed while already the leader of Spain.
But none of these affairs could harm Louzán – except, perhaps, this one: Novas da Galiza reports that Louzán had an affair with NidiaArévalo, the head of the social programme in the Pontevedran city of Mós. She allegedly embezzled European Union funds to the tune of €28.7m from FEDER funds between 2007 and 2013 to companies linked to Louzán, such as Bodegas Agnus Dei, a winery, and building supply company Áridos de Curro, registered in one of Louzán’s properties.
While the entanglement of politics and drugs may be tolerated in Spain – for the benefit of friends and family, of course – embezzling the EU is quite another thing. Louzán better hope his allies will return the favour when the investigative spotlight falls on him.