“Crisis between Interior and Defense,” EL MUNDO titled today on the front page. Because Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior, and other sources from his department had insisted since Friday that the CNI, dependent on Defense, had not warned about the avalanche of thousands of people heading to Ceuta. And military sources consulted yesterday by this newspaper responded by recalling that border control is not the responsibility of Defense, but of Interior. There lay the crisis, the clash.
But it remained to hear from Margarita Robles, the Minister of Defense who, unlike Marlaska, had not yet spoken about the crisis in Ceuta. The minister, as usual, demonstrated her autonomy. On one hand, in a statement pointing to Morocco that no member of the Government had dared to make until now, and on the other hand, in defending her department against veiled criticism from Interior.
The minister said she did not want to contribute to “controversies that benefit no one” and anticipated that they would not “catch her in any kind of argument,” but she wanted to clarify the situation and there she dropped the charge. She began with her “recognition of the CNI,” but when she extended it to other “intelligence services”, such as those of “the Police and the Civil Guard,” she pointed to Marlaska, on whom those security forces depend. Of all of them, she said they were “excellent” professionals.
In a statement to the media in Zaragoza, Robles added that “the Army will continue in Ceuta supporting the Civil Guard,” a way, again, of marking position against Interior regarding the responsibilities that correspond to each.
Read more Ceuta, beyond the latest avalanche: the challenge of living under Morocco’s permanent ‘siege’
In recent days, several journalistic reports, without documentary proof, spoke of the CNI having made “warnings” about the situation. There is no record of any “report.” Nor that the supposed “warnings” alerted about the thousands of people arriving. There were many indications, starting with the verifiable figures of arrivals by swimming and the statements of the authorities of Ceuta, which pointed to a worsening of the situation in Ceuta.
But no one warned of anything like what happened: no fewer than 40,000 people – the figure assumed by Rabat, which Spain has raised to about 60,000 – marching toward the Spanish border. That is why both Marlaska, on Saturday, and the Government delegate, on Sunday, denied that there was information from the Intelligence services. That put the focus on the CNI, which by its very nature cannot defend itself. Its head, Robles, did so this Monday, to confirm that the problem would not be hers alone.
