Ceuta: Government delegate resigns and says he sent alerts to Madrid

Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano justified his resignation with the “campaign of rumors, insults and threats”, including death, of which he has been targeted since two months ago, on 30 and 31 July, more than 70,000 people illegally entered the Spanish autonomous city, an enclave in northern Africa.

In a statement read in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano announced the resignation of representative of the Spanish government in the city and leader of the local Socialist Party (PSOE).

In parallel, he defended his action in this crisis and ensured that “weeks before” the human avalanche on the border with Morocco, warned the Spanish Government, with communications and reports to two ministries, to the extraordinary number of people who were entering and trying to swim the territory, following a deliberation of the Supreme Court “which could create a so-called effect”.

The decision of the high court, known in early July, established that those who enter Spain illegally can only be returned immediately to the other side of the border if they have crossed or violated a physical barrier, which then did not exist at the Ceuta Sea border with Morocco.

The now former delegate of the Spanish Government in Ceuta revealed that he suggested to the superiors in Madrid a change in the law and that he warned that “the situation could get worse”, but acknowledged that “it made nothing to predict” what happened on 30 and 31 July.

The Spanish Government, led by the PSOE, has said that in the face of the increase of entrances in Ceuta illegally the means at the border were strengthened, but that it never received an official report or communication warning of something with the extent of what happened in those days.

This was the second resignation in the Delegation of the Government of Spain in Ceuta this month.

On September 11, the chief of staff of the government delegate resigned, accusing his superior, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, of lying and ensuring that he transmitted the warnings about calls for mass entrances into the city.

According to documents disqualified and published by the Spanish executive on September 9, an element of the National Intelligence Center (CNI, information services) sent messages from WhatsApp to the chief of staff of the government delegate in Ceuta on July 29 on summons on the social networks of Morocco, in groups with 180,000 followers, “for an assault” on the border of the enclave the following day.

“ On social networks, there is an appeal for an assault by the fence and by sea tomorrow at 20:00 (...). There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers. In order for you to have an idea of the extent of the dissemination”, reads a message sent by WhatsApp at 1:52 p.m. on 29 July by a CNI member to the Head of Cabinet of the Spanish Government Delegation in Ceuta, which was known at the beginning of September.

The avalanche on the sea and land border of Ceuta with Morocco began around 11 a.m. on July 30.

Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano then assured that he did not know these messages or had been informed of their contents by Chief of Staff, Gonzalo Sanz.

Gonzalo Sanz assured that he informed Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano about the messages from the CNI and resigned.