Spanish Official Resigns Over Ceuta Warnings

Gonzalo Sanz, head of the office of the Spanish government’s representative in Ceuta, has submitted his resignation, two days after the government released 40 declassified reports on the recent migrant crisis.

The documents revealed communications between the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the government delegation and the Civil Guard ahead of the mass arrival of migrants from Morocco in late July, Euronews reported.

Sanz said he received a warning from the CNI on 29 July about social media posts calling for people to cross into Ceuta by land and sea during Morocco’s Throne Day celebrations the following day. He said he passed the information to the government’s representative in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, that same day.

Sanz said his account was incompatible with statements by Pérez Triano, who had denied knowing about the warning before the reports were declassified.

Pérez Triano says he was unaware of a phone call between Sanz’s office and the CNI and has rejected calls to resign. He maintains that authorities had been warned only of a generally difficult migration situation, not of the scale of the influx that followed.

The revelations have increased pressure on the Spanish government, which has repeatedly denied that the CNI warned it of a possible mass arrival.

(max)