In the annals of Canary Island politics, few connections have been as lucrative and geographically expansive as the one forged between the Catalan nationalism of Jordi Pujol and the Canarian nationalism of the CDS during Julio Bonis’s tenure, later the executive arm of CC during Román Rodríguez’s era. What began as a parliamentary survival pact in 1990s Madrid ended up crystallizing into a web of real estate investments in the Mexican Pacific that today parades before the National Court.
The Origins: Trasmediterránea Connection
The genesis of this relationship is not found in official offices, but on the control bridge of the Jet Foil, the high-speed service that revolutionized inter-island transport in the Canary Islands. It was there that Julio Bonis, a merchant seaman of Valladolid origin and a key architect of CC, established a friendship with Luis Delso, who was then the president of the Trasmediterránea company.
This ‘maritime brotherhood’ served as a bridge for former Generalitat president Jordi Pujol i Soley to introduce his eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, into Bonis’s circle of trust. It was not just a matter of personal affinity: in the 1996 elections, CiU ‘lent’ a deputy to Coalición Canaria so that the Canarian nationalists could form their own group in Congress. ‘I will always be grateful to him,’ Bonis confessed during his recent interrogation.
Azul de Cortés: The Eldorado in Baja California
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office maintains that this political gratitude translated into investment opportunities. The Azul de Cortés project in Mexico is the crown jewel of these suspicions. Under the guise of a luxury tourist development with 2.5 kilometers of coastline, a golf course, and complex archaeological management — ‘that is where Hernán Cortés landed,’ a fervent Bonis recalled — the justice system sees a ‘simulated’ business.
The analyzed figures suggest astonishing profitability: Jordi Pujol Ferrusola participated with 21.5% (2.5 million euros) and Bonis with 1.2 million. Upon selling the company to the Isolux group, the investors multiplied their initial capital by six. Bonis insists there was no ‘windfall’, but rather ‘constant value given to the investment’ through efforts in the U.S. and Mexico.
The Port Network: From Tarragona to Rosario
The narrative of interests does not end in Mexico. The common thread remains the port sector, where the Pujol influence extended through Lluís Badia, former president of the Port of Tarragona. Badia, who acknowledged to the prosecutor ‘vague’ connections with Pujol Ferrusola, facilitated the twinning with the Argentine port of Rosario.
This logistics axis allowed Pujol Ferrusola to operate in the Argentine agricultural ‘hinterland’, a strategic sector for the import of soy and beef to Europe. According to judicial statements, the operation in Rosario was conducted through legal bank transfers, although the trail of the company Imisa (owned by the Pujol-Gironès) remains under the microscope of the UDEF due to alleged commissions and opaque intermediation.
The Twilight of a Lobby Model
The Bonis-Pujol case illustrates the flip side of the Canarian and Catalan autonomous model of the late 20th century: a system of reciprocal favors where politics served as a vanguard for business infiltration into emerging markets.
While Julio Bonis defends that he has never been indicted and that his businesses operated ‘under the utmost legality’, the National Court seeks to determine whether the 13 million euros in profit obtained by the group are the result of a legitimate business vision or the toll of an illicit association structure that used the ports and parliamentary agreements as a platform for private enrichment. In the islands, the name Bonis continues to evoke the era when Coalición Canaria played a ‘short game’ in Madrid, an era that now, amid court rulings and liquidation plans, seems to be forgotten.
News written by Pedro Marrero. Edited and verified by Gara Vega. Information cross-checked without institutional filters. This analysis has not been financed by official advertising nor conditioned by lobby interests.
