The general secretary of PSOE-A and candidate for the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía, María Jesús Montero, has reproached this Sunday the PP-A candidate for re-election, Juanma Moreno, for intending to "cash in" on "misfortunes" such as the death of two civil guards in the line of duty last Friday on the coast of Huelva while combating drug trafficking, and has stressed that "enough with political opportunism".
Montero has launched these criticisms during her speech at a rally held at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), an event she shared with the Secretary General of the PSOE and President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. The meeting, initially scheduled for Saturday, was postponed to this Sunday following the incident, and began with a minute of silence in memory of the deceased agents.
In the front row of the venue, with a capacity for 1,200 attendees, were alongside Pedro Sánchez and María Jesús Montero the deputy general secretary of PSOE-A, María Márquez, and the provincial secretary of PSOE of Cádiz, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, among other socialist leaders.
The PSOE's lead candidate for Cádiz in the 17M elections, Juan Cornejo, was in charge of opening the event, asking those present to observe a minute of silence for the two deceased civil guards and conveying a public message of support and affection to their families and colleagues.
In her speech, María Jesús Montero lamented the death of these "public servants" that "has given us sadness and has shocked us", and expressed "the solidarity of all of Andalusia with the families" of the agents.
Next, he wanted to "denounce that some always try to cash in on tragedies," alluding to the video released on Friday by the President of the Junta after learning of the events and a day of official mourning being decreed in Andalusia.
After watching said video, the socialist candidate insisted that "enough political opportunism," and criticized that "discontent, misfortune is used to tell lies, to convey insecurity." Although she acknowledged that "of course" it is necessary to "continue improving," she claimed that "it has been the progressive Government of Pedro Sánchez that has ensured that today in Andalusia there are 3,500 more officers than in the PP era" in the Executive, when "they cut 1,500 civil guards and police officers" in the community, as she reproached.
Furthermore, Montero has defended that the Sánchez Executive "has enabled, out of justice, an increase in the remuneration of these civil guards and police officers by an average of 400 euros per month in some categories", as well as the implementation of a special plan that has allowed "coordination, a much more effective fight against drug trafficking".
The socialist leader added that Juanma Moreno "would do well", instead of "transferring as always that the blame lies with another, to assume his own responsibility, because it is difficult to know why the regional competencies in the fight against drugs are not exercised, in the funding for associations that are responsible for attending to these people, in the waiting lists that exist for people with addictions to reach the first appointment".
He also stressed that the Board has "territorial planning powers", and recalled that "very close" to La Línea is "what is called in this land 'Narcos Town', where these drug traffickers are at ease with illegal housing that they have turned into a refuge to try to flee from justice".
Montero has also conveyed to Moreno that "if he is so concerned about drug trafficking, he would do well to explain why his party's corruption is permanently associated with drug trafficking", mentioning the case of the masks with "more than 40 public officials from the PP of Almería charged".
Along the same lines, he has referred to the mayor of Marbella (Málaga), Ángeles Muñoz, who "has not yet explained where those 12 million in assets came from, knowing that her husband, her stepson, were in the drug business," and has alluded to the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, about whom he has pointed out that "it is very ugly to be seen vacationing and strolling with a drug trafficker," in reference to his photograph with Marcial Dorado.