Rabat \u2013 A growing dispute between Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has exposed deep tensions within the government over what authorities knew before the mass migrant crossing into Ceuta on July 30.<\/p>\n
The dispute centers on a key question. Did Spain\u2019s intelligence services warn the government that a large-scale crossing was coming?<\/p>\n
Robles says they did. Marlaska says there was no such warning.<\/p>\n
Speaking before the Defense Committee in Congress on Tuesday, Robles defended the work of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), which operates under her ministry. She said intelligence services had shared information with security forces and officials from the Government Delegation in Ceuta.<\/p>\n
Robles also said that 25 CNI agents were deployed in Ceuta. According to her account<\/a><\/strong>, on July 29, the agents informed local authorities about a social media call for migrants to enter Ceuta by swimming the following day, coinciding with Morocco\u2019s Throne Day celebrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marlaska has repeatedly rejected the idea that his ministry received a warning predicting the scale of the crisis. At a government press conference, he said there was no intelligence report from the CNI or from an allied country\u2019s intelligence service that anticipated what happened on July 30.<\/p>\n He argued that if such a warning had existed, it would have been passed to the highest levels of government so that exceptional measures could have been taken.<\/p>\n The Government Delegation in Ceuta has also pushed back against Robles\u2019 account. It said it did not receive a formal warning that would have allowed authorities to anticipate the scale of the crossing, although it did receive daily information about the increase in migrant arrivals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier warnings<\/b><\/p>\n The latest dispute comes after several reports that Spanish authorities had received warnings before the crisis.<\/p>\n El Faro de Ceuta reported<\/a><\/strong> that Spanish intelligence and security services had warned Madrid days before the July 30-31 crossings that a large-scale attempt to enter Ceuta was likely. The report said several intelligence reports had been sent to Madrid before the crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Reuters investigation found that Spanish police and Civil Guard unions had repeatedly warned the government about rising sea arrivals and the growing pressure on border forces.<\/p>\n