The personal archive of Emilio Alonso Manglano, director of Cesid from 23-F to June 1995, reveals the specific destination of part of the funds that Juan Carlos I received from Saudi Arabia to finance the Transition. The source of the head of the Spanish intelligence is Don Juan Carlos himself, who, in a hearing held in La Zarzuela on May 30, 1989, confessed to Manglano having given Adolfo Suárez one million euros after his resignation as Prime Minister.
Most of this hearing, which is part of the Lieutenant General’s biography, “The Chief of Spies,” was announced by ABC on Wednesday, October 6. According
the story of the Cesid director, Juan Carlos I, told him: “The King of Saudi Arabia gave me $ 36 million for the Transition.” He then told him that of those 36 million in US currency, “when Adolfo Suárez left, he gave him a million for himself.”
It was not the first time Don Juan Carlos spoke to him about this thorny matterIn a hearing in La Zarzuela held almost three years earlier, on October 10, 1986, it was anticipated in full disgust at the attitude of Suárez, who continued to resist leaving politics. Manglano: «He offered a million dollars to Suárez for when he stopped being PG [presidente del Gobierno]. Nobody knows”. On this occasion the King used the verb “to offer”, but at the hearing on May 30, 1989, he confirmed the delivery.
The crisis over the Suárez succession generated enormous political instability in the early 1980s. The King was aware of the difficulties that the strategy of the former president was generating for the new government and the UCD, and of the complications that accompanied his political ambition. “I am willing to neutralize Suárez,” the King confessed to Manglano, since the former leader of the UCD had told the monarch: “If they make me a duke, I will not get involved in politics.” Suárez announced his resignation on January 29, 1981. A month later, on February 25, 1981, Don Juan Carlos granted him the dukedom. The times agree with the delivery of the million euros (“when Suárez left”). But the former president did not abandon politics: after leaving the government and leaving the UCD, he founded the Democratic and Social Center (CDS).
This audience in La Zarzuela is already a page that will remain for the History of Spain. Don Juan Carlos not only spoke to the Cesid director about the donation of 36 million from the House of Saud and one million dollars for Suárez, but also about zero-interest loans: «The (Saudi) king granted him a loan of 50 million dollarss. About 30 are retained in the bank, the rest to be invested. Profit of $ 18 million. Now they have renewed 30 million under the same conditions.
Regarding that first loan of 50 million dollars at zero interest, there is another entry that establishes it. It took place on October 24, 1983, the day on which the head of State intelligence attended another audience with His Majesty. Although with less detail, among the notes in your agenda appears this: «El Rey, through Manolo Prado, managed 50 million dollars for UCD. What has become of this?
These annotations reveal that Don Juan Carlos contributed with his efforts to finance the new regime, and also that he built his personal fortune there, now in the focus of public opinion due to the investigations of the Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa and the proceedings of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Court Supreme, which could be shelved shortly.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism