The resignation of the Chief of Staff of the Government Delegate in Ceuta opens the door to future departures over the management of the crisis at the Ceuta border. After the resignation of his right-hand man, it is the delegate himself, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano—now accused of lying by claiming that he was not given all the information—who could be forced to assume the responsibilities that the people of Ceuta have been demanding for over a month with cries of “traitor” or “resignation”.
As details have emerged about what happened in the days leading up to the invasion on July 30, Triano has been reformulating his version of events. But contradictions have always surfaced in each version of his account. The first was after the statement by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in Congress, who said that on July 29 the CNI informed the Delegation of the call to enter by swimming the next day. In response to those statements, the Government representation in Ceuta issued a press release to clarify that “it did not receive any report warning of what was going to happen on July 30”.
But then came the D-day: Pedro Sánchez’s government declassified last Wednesday the reports that showed there were indeed warnings and communications with the Ceuta delegation. Despite this, Triano clung to his position and ruled out his resignation: “I didn’t know anything,” he said during a press conference held that same day. He downplayed the exchange of WhatsApp messages as an “informal exchange of information” and claimed to be unaware of the content of the call his Chief of Staff had with the CNI liaison.
Again, the delegate contradicted himself yesterday during an interview on Cadena Ser, where he added, this time, that he had spoken with his Chief of Staff about the 11-minute call that took place around 9:34 p.m. “They informed us about the situation, the migratory pressure of those days,” he added, reiterating that it was something “routine,” although conceding that information was indeed passed on.
Now, the resignation of his number two, who accuses him of lying about the chain of information transmission in the Delegation, brings him closer to the political scaffold. Especially because Triano, Sánchez’s man in Ceuta, is the scapegoat of a city that feels the Government has let go of their hand amid this crisis and they do not forgive that a caballa has aligned with Moncloa instead of with his people.
They blame him, admonish him, confront him. They fervently demand his resignation and on the street, they face him without letting him go out. “He will have to leave Ceuta,” the neighbors repeat. Among his own, the socialists, they defend his good work “as a manager” and recall that he was chosen as secretary general of the party in Ceuta to revitalize it.
The intention was for him to run in the 2027 elections. “Forget it, it’s too big for him,” say Ceuta residents. And in the neighborhood where he has always lived, they consider that he has turned his back on his people. Sources who knew him closely say he has an affable, even shy character. “He comes from a working-class background and is very empathetic: he has a lot of caballa feeling. He was always involved with the neighborhood and really enjoyed his work: he was a preschool and Physical Education teacher,” they reveal. But all that is behind him now and the situation is already unsustainable.
Government Delegate since February 2026, “the hostility against him is brutal,” lament the PSOE of Ceuta. “The people have executed him. But with a legitimate rage, on the other hand, since we have the city invaded,” highlighted a senior official of the socialist leadership in the city. The insults have reached his family who, however, “are wonderful on a personal level,” says a citizen who worked for him, “but now he has a political position and owes himself to those who put him there,” he points out. “Now, clinging to the chair with Ceuta as it is… I don’t know anymore.”
Triano, orphaned of his father from an early age, was secretary of the socialist youth for “many years,” although socialist sources cannot specify the exact time frame. That’s how he began to build a career in the politics of his city, perhaps one of his great interests. He shares his passion for politics with his wife, who comes from a well-known socialist family in Ceuta: the Miaja family, a dynasty that started with Fructuoso, who was mayor of the Autonomous City for the PSOE between 1987 and 1991.
His contradictory statements this week refer back to what Ortega y Gasset wrote about politics and war, which require severity and precision, virtues that Triano has not been able to exercise during this crisis, bringing him ever closer to the political abyss.
