The Ministry of the Interior denied this Wednesday that the attack on the Spanish border from Ceuta – as defined by the president, Pedro Sánchez, on July 31, as an “attack on Spanish sovereignty” – is labeled as “planned or executed by the Security Forces of Morocco” in the report made by the National Police and sent to the judge of the National Court María Tardón.
After the meeting of the minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, with the director general of the Police, Francisco Pardo, the Ministry issued a statement pointing out that the report sent to the judicial authority does not explicitly say that the “Security Forces” of Morocco planned or executed the rush that brought 80,000 people to Ceuta, putting the city on the brink of collapse.
The clarification responds to what was published about the content of the report, which does confirm, as EL MUNDO confirmed, that Moroccan gendarmes and agents without uniforms directed the masses towards the border, leading them directly to the El Tarajal breakwater. What the Interior Ministry clarifies is that, although the report points to agents, this does not imply an institutional attribution to the “Security Forces” of Morocco.
The meeting took place urgently, after the Government, which had been repeating for weeks that Morocco did not command the “assault” – so called by the president, who even incriminated “Russia,” “Israel,” or some vague “mafias” -, woke up this Wednesday to find that its own Police had sent Judge Tardón, on duty for the commission of the events on July 30, a report saying exactly the opposite.
Marlaska and Pardo thus met mid-morning, and the first move by the Interior Ministry after the meeting was to clarify that the document actually does not directly attribute the assault to Morocco, although – this is not said by the Interior Ministry – it does point to agents of the Moroccan state, even with images of them herding the crowd.
Additionally, the Interior Ministry says that Judge Tardón requested strict confidentiality from the unit to which she requested the National Police report, in compliance with the law, which requires absolute discretion when something is commissioned to a police authority as judicial police. For that reason, the Interior Ministry would not have been informed of what was submitted to the magistrate.
Finally, the Ministry denies that in the report from the General Immigration Police Station dated July 29, just one day before the rush, the magnitude of what was coming was indicated: “The director general of the Police explains that it was a frequent risk alert that did not include any reference to a possible massive entry the next day”, says the ministerial note. The media themselves published in those days – EL MUNDO among them – that the situation was worsening in El Tarajal.
