Covadonga San Pedro and Celia Rodríguez, longtime employees in the Socialist Party’s Organization department, appeared as witnesses on July 28. San Pedro explained to the prosecutor that Díez contacted her directly to request a parking space when she visited the party headquarters. During the questioning, they reviewed various messages from May, June and July 2024 in which Díez requested parking, claiming she had a meeting with Cerdán. The employee acknowledged that she consulted her superior about those requests before arranging them.
THE EMPLOYEES DID NOT QUESTION SANTOS CERDÁN’S ORDERS
The questioning also addressed an email concerning the reservation of a plane ticket for Díez. The travel agency requested management authorization because the passenger was not listed among the authorized individuals, and San Pedro confirmed that she stated it was an order from Santos Cerdán. When asked why she arranged travel for someone outside the party’s structure, she replied that she did not question the orders she received from her superiors.
The employee recalled arranging a bus to Santander, a flight between Bilbao and Madrid, a vehicle rental and train tickets to Zaragoza. The latter trip had already appeared in documentation analyzed by the UCO: it took place on July 10, 2024, and Díez traveled to the Aragonese capital with businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, who is also under investigation in the case. The Civil Guard identified six trips taken by Díez and paid for by the PSOE between April and August of that year.
Celia Rodríguez also confirmed that they arranged parking for Díez when she said she was going to Ferraz for a meeting, and said she had personally seen her at the headquarters on two or three occasions.
SIX TRIPS PAID FOR BY THE PSOE
Rodríguez also recalled personally arranging a trip to Jerez de la Frontera. When asked by the prosecutor whether she found it unusual to issue tickets for someone who did not work at the Socialist Party headquarters, she avoided offering an assessment and referred to her administrative role within the party. The statements by both employees thus reinforce the documentary account the UCO had already reconstructed of how Díez’s travel was arranged from Ferraz.
The Civil Guard had previously indicated that Cerdán gave his staff verbal instructions to consider any trip requested by Díez authorized and pay for it with PSOE resources.
