Spain's spy agency warned of Ceuta border breach plans before crisis, declassified files show
MADRID (AP) — Spain's national intelligence agency issued multiple warnings before the Ceuta border crisis about a potential mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish exclave in late July, according to declassified documents released by the government on Wednesday.
The trove of 40 documents, which includes alerts, intelligence reports, charts and communications from multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies, appears to undermine what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said about the level of prior warning the government had before the sudden influx took place.
Major protests in Spain have taken place in response to the migrant arrivals, with critics blaming Sánchez's government for the crisis.
On July 29, a day before more than 72,000 people began pouring into the Spanish city neighboring Morocco, Spain's spy agency, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), sent an alert via WhatsApp to the Spanish government's delegation in Ceuta about calls on social media "for an assault on the fence and by sea tomorrow at 8 p.m.”
“There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers," the declassified WhatsApp message from the intelligence agency said, “just to give you an idea of its scale."
A note by Spain's spy agency that day to Moroccan intelligence agencies warned of plans on social media for migrants to enter Ceuta on July 30 by climbing a border fence separating the exclave from Morocco, or by swimming around it, the documents show. It mentioned that migrants might take advantage of Morocco's national Throne Day, celebrated every year on July 30.
That same day, Spain's national intelligence agency issued similar warnings about “several groups on Facebook and WhatsApp encouraging these attempts” in messages to Spain's Civil Guard police force.
Morocco's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Wednesday about the report.
On Wednesday, Sánchez rejected the idea that the declassified documents revealed that there was prior warning about a mass crossing of the scale that took place between July 30 and 31.
“The existence of this campaign was known ... and was being monitored, but in no way did it constitute or could it be interpreted as an indicator of the scale, nature, or probability of what happened afterward,” Sánchez wrote on X, referencing the spy agency’s July 29 warning about what was brewing on social media.
Sánchez has defended his government's handling of the crisis and has been careful not to criticize or accuse Morocco's government of orchestrating the incident. That has sparked further criticism, with opponents accusing him of pandering to the Moroccan government.
Several weeks after the initial border rush, Ceuta is dealing with a prolonged humanitarian crisis because of some 5,000 migrants who remain in the small city, according to the national government. Local officials cite a higher figure.
The Spanish leader announced last week while speaking to lawmakers that the government would release documents from July 1-31 related to the mass crossing, in which more than 140 people died, according to NGOs.
In the days immediately prior to the mass crossing, hundreds of migrants swimming or crossing from Morocco had reached Ceuta, which Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska acknowledged at the time.
He said then that authorities were facing “an extraordinary, exceptional situation," and that the Spanish government was “dealing with it with the means that we already have deployed there permanently.”
Wednesday’s document trove includes reports from multiple agencies that detailed the rising arrivals, a surge that overwhelmed authorities beginning July 30.
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
