In a crowded room buzzing with bravado, two loudmouths trade barbs as heat climbs toward a breaking point. The swinging doors slam wide and the crowd falls silent as a newcomer strides to the bar, orders a double whiskey, and asks the pianist for a tune. Speak out of turn and trouble will erupt again—fists flying, teeth clashing, bodies crumpling. The author never cast him as the lead. He is no John Wayne, though his closest ally may be the only thing that comes close. Characters sometimes breathe on their own, and the plot twists unexpectedly.
A broad sketch of Koldo García, born in Barakaldo, Vizcaya, in 1970, fits that archetype well: a tough man who stays loyal to his employer and keeps sharper than his appearance suggests.
In his youth, García kept order in the hall, and the comparison isn’t metaphorical. From a nightlife bouncer to a bodyguard during the hard times of ETA, his path is marked by realism rather than fiction. Two episodes carry weight that feels almost cinematic in scope but are grounded in stark reality. In 1991, while guarding a construction site, he and colleagues participated in a beating of a neighbor who had raised concerns about a road project. He received two years and four months in a lower-security sentence, yet a presidential pardon altered that outcome. In 2010, he faced a conviction for striking a minor on the day of a World Cup final in South Africa. The incident unfolded in a Pamplona bar where a shirt bearing Independentzia sparked tension, and a plainclothes officer reportedly pushed him outside, triggering a scuffle. These events mark a blunt, painful history rather than a glossy crime narrative.
On loyalty, the clearest example comes from spring 2017. Pedro Sánchez faced a brutal leadership contest that ripped the party apart. The leadership and most federations backed the Andalusian Susana Díaz, while a stubborn faction and much of the rank-and-file believed in the ousted Sánchez. The campaign team feared dirty tricks or theft that could invalidate key supports. Santos Cerdán, then secretary of organization for the PSOE, appeared with a burly man who had once been a socialist town councilor in Navarra. The big man lived up to the job. He slept beside the endorsement papers for two nights. Sánchez highlights the feat in his Manual of Resistance. At that moment, García earned the trust of José Luis Ábalos, who sat in the inner circle of the candidate. The episode stands as a stark illustration of his loyalty.
With Ábalos later serving as secretary of organization for the PSOE and later as Minister of Transport, García proved his perceptiveness. From a driver and bodyguard at Ferraz, he joined the ministerial advisory ranks. Advisory on what? Think of the Wild West—one moment guarding someone’s back, the next clearing the ground for strategic moves. Then, suddenly, a virus arrives, the tolls ring for the fallen, and García believes he has struck gold again. He isn’t naïve; like many, he dives into the health crisis rush, chasing the hottest item in a country where daily deaths climb.
Back-and-forth chatter fills the room while family accounts grow, and García’s fortune climbs to three, no, three flats in Benidorm. Eventually, a local sheriff grows suspicious. A lingering scent of something off wafts through the case, and the National Court begins examining links to seafood businesses and dangerous acquaintances.
García becomes an unexpected central figure, yet twists arise for others as eyes turn toward him. In the first defensive move, the PSOE hoped Ábalos would resign his seat as deputy, a move not executed, leaving him in the mixed group. The room remains tense: García may still hold Sánchez’s endorsement power. (Source: political reportage, publicly available records.)
Note: The narrative frame here is drawn from public histories and documented events that show how loyalty and power intersect in modern political life, often under pressure from controversy and surveillance. The characters and events reflect real-world dynamics where alliances are tested, and leadership decisions ripple through organizations, affecting many who are not in the spotlight. (Source: contemporary political histories.)