Carlos Enrique Bayo
Público.es
In the months leading up to the Ramblas attack, tensions between the Catalan Government and the Interior Ministry increased due to the lack of access by the Mossos d'Esquadra to the data and resources of the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime ( CITCO). Minister Zoido has not allowed them to join the Europol system either.
The dispute between the Generalitat and the central government over control of the fight against terrorism in Catalonia has been maintained for years, but in recent months has been intensified, with the Government accusing the Executive of Rajoy to veto measures essential to ensure security In a situation of alert 4 and after the proliferation of jihadi attacks against European tourist centers.
Tension became riffraff in June, when ERC spokesman in the Congress of Deputies, Gabriel Rufian, asked the new Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, to resign "for miserable and irresponsible", after opposing the call for 500 new places of Mossos d'Esquadra and refuse to accept the call of the Security Council of Catalonia, initially set by President Carles Puigdemont for July 3, after eight years without meeting.
Zoido argued that the half thousand new mossos was a unilateral decision of the Generalitat that "has far exceeded the fixed replacement rate", but the fact is that according to the 2006 agreement between the Government and the Generalitat, the Mossos d ' Fleet should now have 1,500 more agents than it currently has. Because Zoido's predecessor, Jorge Fernández Díaz, also froze the expansion of the Catalan police force.
The Minister of the Interior also said that "in the conference of presidents last January, which was not attended by any representative of Catalonia, the President of the Government and the presidents of the different autonomous communities were dealing with this issue and agreed that in the framework of The public offer of employment will proceed to the analysis of the different needs in the priority sectors of the autonomous communities, especially in security. So Zoido argued: "Mr. Rufián, is that no one came here to find out what they had to do."
As for the Security Council set by Puigdemont, Zoido also claimed that it was a unilateral decision and explained that he could not attend on the date set because he had a meeting "with three interior ministers from bordering countries."
However, shortly before the Rufian-Zoido encounter, the Rajoy government had indeed held the Basque Security Council - after five years without meeting - to integrate the Ertzaintza into the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime ( CITCO), as well as the access of the Basque Police to the early warning system and to European police information (EUROPOL, SIENA, SIRENE). Precisely what the Mossos and the Parlament de Catalunya have been complaining for years.
This comparative grievance - no doubt executed to reward the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) for its support for the investiture of Rajoy - further angered the Government, the Mossos and even the unions of the Catalan police. The spokeswoman for the major union of the body (SAP-Fepol), Imma Viudes, told Público that they were being "used as a political weapon" and that Zoido's veto on hiring 500 more agents was a "clear reprisal" against Generalitat for the announcement of a referendum on independence for October 1.
Viudes even went so far as to say that the Mossos were not able to "guarantee security" because the lack of troops means that they can not meet the number of hours of service required for the fight against terrorism.
Something very serious in a community where 37% of the total arrests of Islamic extremists in Spain are made, although it only has 16% of the Spanish population.
The Mossos are denied access to Interpol data
In his first meeting with Zoido, after his appointment in November, the Interior Minister of the Generalitat, Jordi Jané, asked that the Mossos be incorporated "fully as integral police" to all police agencies, starting with CITCO, In which they have only been incorporated - as of May of this year - in their evaluation table. In fact, the Mossos have been denied for years to access to Interpol data, and the exchange of information with law enforcement agencies in other countries.
Just a month ago, Minister Jané dined with a senior staff member of Rajoy's team to express his concern about the blockade that, in the opinion of the Generalitat, was being submitted to him by Interior in terms of anti-terrorist planning, Public has learned. A growing concern about the warnings and threats received lately by the Catalan Government.
According to El Periódico de Catalunya,
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned Spain two months ago that Barcelona, and specifically Las Ramblas, was one of the targets of jihadism. An alert that was reaffirmed last July 30 when a Twitter account associated with the Islamic State announced an imminent attack on Al Andalus (the Spanish territories that were dominated by Islam): "We are going to implement the caliphate in Spain and we will recover our Earth. Impending attack on Al Andalus. If Allah wills. "
In fact, Barcelona has been marked for many years as a main target for Islamist terrorism and since 2009 the US consulate in the city has installed a spy antenna in which several agencies participate with the mission of serving as the base of anti-jihadist intelligence in the Mediterranean Western. Two years earlier, the then US ambassador, Eduardo Aguirre, had stated, in a report leaked by Wikileaks:
The high legal and illegal immigration from North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), as well as from Pakistan and Bangladesh has made Catalonia the largest Mediterranean center of activity of Islamist radicals. Of this region a magnet to recruit terrorists. "
Following intense pressure from the Government, Zoido finally came to the Security Council of Catalonia on July 10 and agreed to join the Mossos d'Esquadra in CITCO, led by Jose Luis Olivera, former head of the UDEF. The Terrorism Risk Assessment Board. Nevertheless, the integration of the Mossos into the Siena system of Europol of exchanges of European police information was still pending that also demands the Generalitat.
Zoido merely announced the creation of a working group to explore the possibility of Mossos participating in Europol's police information exchange system.
As little more than a month, mid-summer, since that agreement, little progress has been made in this integration of the Mossos with the structure and counter-terrorism resources of the Interior, according to various testimonies collected by Público. Rufian himself says that the agreement of July 10 is for the moment nothing more than a "compromise" without materializing, and other spokesmen of Catalan political parties admit not knowing if it has become effective.
According to the PDeCAT spokesman in the Congressional Interior Committee, Sergi Miquel, "the Mossos are not yet within the anti-terrorist system of the Interior. Some meetings are invited to evaluate the level of anti-terror alert and the day the Board met Security was agreed something similar to a working group within the framework of the Board. "
In fact, Rajoy did not summon the Mossos to the cabinet of governmental crisis created after the attack of the Ramblas, according to sources of the Generalitat, whereas in the meeting of coordination of the Mossos yes were present representatives of the National Police and the Guard Civil.
Source: http://www.publico.es/politica/atentado-ramblas-generalitat-denuncio-cooperacion-gobierno-rajoy-lucha-antiterrorista.html
