An urgent memo from the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), declassified on Wednesday and dated 29 July, confirms that the agency was aware, at least 24 hours in advance, of the possibility of a migrant crossing linked to Morocco's Throne Day celebrations.
The memo, declassified by the Spanish Prime Minister's Office, shows that Morocco's intelligence services, the DGST and DGED, were warned about several active WhatsApp groups that were "preparing an attempt to enter (...) next Thursday, 30 July".
Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday, in an interview on 'Mañaneros 360', that the CNI had failed to effectively anticipate the migration and humanitarian crisis that eventually unfolded in Ceuta.
However, the Defence Minister maintains that the Centre did warn the Government Delegation in the autonomous city a day before the potential crisis. The memo, together with another declassified WhatsApp conversation, backs Margarita Robles on this latter point.
"Without questioning their professionalism, a mass arrival of so many migrants was certainly not anticipated," the socialist president said in Wednesday's interview, criticised by the TVE News Council for being conducted on a programme made by an external production company rather than by the public broadcaster itself and without any journalists from the corporation.
