Published on •Updated
The chief of staff to the Spanish government’s delegate in Ceuta, Gonzalo Sanz, has resigned from his position, the latest episode in an ongoing controversy over what Spanish authorities may have known ahead of the mass arrival of migrants into the North African exclave in late July.
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The resignation has not yet been officially confirmed by sources at the Government Delegation.
Sanz said he received a warning from the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) on 29 July, in which he was alerted to messages circulating on social media in groups with a combined 180,000 members. The warning came one day before the mass arrival of migrants into Ceuta from Morocco.
According to his account, Sanz passed that information on to the government’s delegate, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, that same day.
He said there was an obvious “inconsistency” between this claim and the various statements the delegate has made to different media outlets, in which he insisted he was not aware of the warning until the government declassified the reports on the crisis.
Despite taking this step, the now former chief of staff made it clear that his decision was not motivated by any “bitterness” towards the delegate. According to Sanz, the Government Delegation worked “tirelessly” to obtain responses from the central government from the very first minute.
He added that there were reports documenting the warnings sent to the different ministries, and he expressed his hope that Ceuta “returns to normal as soon as possible.”
Declassified reports
The resignation comes just two days after the government made public 40 declassified reports containing communications involving the CNI, the Government Delegation and the Civil Guard.
In those messages, sent via WhatsApp, an intelligence officer signalled his concern about calls detected on social networks for the following day, 30 July, and about the possibility of an “assault” by “sea and land” on the autonomous city.
The warning said that social media contained a call to take advantage of the Throne Day celebrations, when security forces would be occupied with the festivities.
After that message, there was an 11-minute phone call between the Government Delegation’s office and the CNI agent. Shortly afterwards, Sanz replied to the intelligence officer, confirming that he had received the warning.
Differing accounts
Triano has said he had no knowledge of that conversation and has characterised the exchange as part of “an exchange of informational documents,” never, according to him, linked to the possibility of a mass entry.
In a press conference, the delegate ruled out resigning over his handling of the crisis. He maintained that in the days leading up to the mass entry of 30 and 31 July, the authorities had only been warned of “a serious and complex migration situation,” and that at no point had they been warned as to the scale of what would subsequently happen.
He also said he would not allow the work of the Government Delegation to be called into question, since, in his view, what happened on 30 July overwhelmed any measures that could have been adopted.
The government, for its part, has repeatedly denied that the CNI warned it that a mass entry could take place, a version of events that is now coming under scrutiny.
