“Since what happened on Perejil Island, Morocco uses its citizens as a bargaining chip with the Spanish government at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla.” The speaker is not an analyst from a think tank in Washington nor a diplomat. It is Marcus, a fictitious name to maintain anonymity, a Fire Controlman in the United States Navy stationed at the Naval Base of Rota, the largest concentration of American military power in southern Europe.
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In one of the pubs in the central area of Rota, where dozens of American military personnel gather on weekends as a tradition since the base was definitively established in 1958, the topic of conversation is somewhat taboo due to the political delicacy of the matter. Among conversations in which they want to keep their identity hidden, everyone maintains the same discourse: the serious migration problem that Spain is experiencing and which was reflected last week with the massive entry of 72,000 immigrants to the coast of Ceuta where, to date, more than 140 deaths have been recorded.
TRUMP AND CEUTA
The massive entry of immigrants to the coasts of Ceuta last week has marked a before and after at Spain’s borders. This geopolitical movement has generated a massive international reaction regarding the direction of the migration policy of Pedro Sánchez’s government and the European Union. Donald Trump and his administration enter the scene…
The President of the United States did not delay in reacting on his social network: “What is happening with Spain, with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants invading it, happened in the United States during the administration of sleepy Joe Biden, and it will happen again if the Democrats ever return to power.” In this regard, his second-in-command, JD Vance, followed the same line of discourse assuring that “this is an unfortunate reminder of the consequences of mass migration and the radical left’s globalist policies that have allowed the invasion of the West.”
Marcus’s American perspective on Spain’s stance regarding what happened is clear: “Sánchez’s policy of opening the doors to everyone and facilitating the massive regularization of hundreds of thousands of immigrants is, without a doubt, a political, social, and security problem. This problem scales to a Europe that should reinforce its borders just as it did in Poland when the war in Ukraine broke out, despite no intrusion having occurred on Polish territory.”
Regarding what happened at the Tarajal breakwater, the military offers his point of view: “Morocco used migration to assess how Spain would respond to an invasion,” in a massive entry that bewildered the population of Ceuta, 83,000 inhabitants, in just 24 hours.
Geopolitical enclaves
Two factors weigh on paper. The first, the good relationship that Morocco maintains with the United States, largely woven through arms industry contracts and with Israel involved. The second, geography: Ceuta and Melilla are just a step from the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the great bottlenecks — better known as chokepoints — of world trade, through which about 10% of international maritime traffic passes.
These circumstances, combined with the open war between Iran over who controls the Strait of Hormuz, another of the most important chokepoints worldwide, make the two autonomous cities take on political relevance in the American country.
In fact, last April, the US House Appropriations Committee, in the report accompanying the State Department budget law, included a paragraph that caused some stir. “The cities of Ceuta and Melilla, administered by Spain, remain the subject of the historic Moroccan claim.” And it goes a step further by supporting that the Secretary of State promote a diplomatic commitment between Morocco and Spain on “the future status of Ceuta and Melilla.” Why does the US already talk about the “future status” of Ceuta and Melilla?
“Mass regularization and immigration at current levels will generate even more conflict”
Marcus, American military
While relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States are clearly positive outwardly, according to Marcus, currently the ties between Washington and Madrid are at their lowest point, as is happening with most European countries. In this regard, the American military points to ideological differences. “They are taking their toll,” he assures.
Despite this, the White House currently maintains strategic points within the country so, in a relationship where the rope is tense, Marcus assures that “Spain is not a bad partner for the United States, the bad partner is Pedro Sánchez.”
“MAKE SPAIN GREAT…”
We also talk about the “Make Spain Great Again.” That was the phrase displayed on Ferran Torres’s cap, the scorer who gave Spain its second star in overtime against Argentina, during the bus parade through the streets of Madrid. Following those images, the political link began to spread like wildfire to the point that the Valencian had to clarify that “it had nothing to do with politics, it was just to see Spain at the top again, winning the World Cup.”
However, far from finding it funny, Marcus believes it represents that a large part of Spaniards want a change in the country’s political direction. However, he assures it is not support for Trump, because many people with right-wing ideology reject his policies and ideas.
FEWER AMERICANS
During EL MUNDO’s stay in the coastal town, conversations with waiters, taxi drivers, and barbers always pointed in the same direction… there are fewer Americans than before. Everyone agrees that the war with Iran has caused many from the US Navy to have to deploy in the current war with the Arab country.
This factor has opened another debate: Will Donald Trump move the Rota base to Morocco? Beyond assumptions and statements, Marcus downplays the matter: “I think such a radical change will not happen in the time he has left in office. Also, I think he did it as a bluff, to scare Spain and Europe, a simple tactic to pressure. Something like that is not so easy to change.”
Between the legendary sound of Sweet Caroline and the nostalgic Country Roads, the Americans do not dare to foresee a future outside Rota. Young and not so young, Americans and Latinos, prefer to stay out of everything and enjoy a lager. Marcus is the only one who takes a stand: “Spanish society is deeply polarized.”
