The Government delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, has reiterated that he never received officially the warnings from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) about the call spread on social networks to enter massively into the autonomous city at the end of July, emphasizing that it was only an "informal communication exchange" maintained by a member of his cabinet.
The documents about the migration crisis made public this Wednesday detail that the CNI alerted the Government Delegation in Ceuta of a "call" on networks to carry out an "assault by fence and sea" to the autonomous city through the messaging application WhatsApp on July 29, just one day before the massive entry of more than 70,000 people from Morocco.
After the declassification became known, Miguel Ángel Pérez held a press conference in which he assured that "he had no knowledge of that conversation with the CNI." In addition, he emphasized that "it is very easy to take the messages out of context" included in the report and insisted that "it is nothing more than an informal communication exchange."
The delegate has reminded that "we cannot forget that we were already in a situation of enormous border migration pressure with hundreds of entries daily," referring to the scenario prior to the massive entry.
Questioned by the media about the actions of the Government Delegation, Pérez Triano has rejected the possibility of resigning and has maintained that information of that level from the CNI should be directed "to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, not to a Government delegate."
"One might think that I already knew. I knew nothing. We had a migratory context that was worsening every day," reiterated the representative of the central Executive, who added that the CNI "says the same thing we said": "But no one could foresee what happened."
Even so, the delegate has defended the actions of his team and has emphasized that "if we have done anything, precisely, it has been to send information. No one has sent more information than the Government Delegation in Ceuta," pointing out that all the data collected "had been transferred to the competent ministries."
He also recalled that the situation "was even in the newspapers," referring to various news from the local press in the days prior to the massive entry, in which alerts were already raised about the increase in attempts to access by swimming to the Autonomous City.
In this context, Pérez Triano has explained that, before the crisis broke out, they requested reinforcements and that the Civil Guard "increased the number of personnel." "We had more personnel than usual at the border in those days prior; that is to say, decisions were made," he has defended.