They Knew And Did Nothing

From CBS News: "Spain's spy agency warned of Ceuta border breach before crisis, declassified files show." From the lede:

    Spain's national intelligence agency issued multiple warnings before the Ceuta border crisis about a potential mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish exclave in late July, according to declassified documents released by the government on Wednesday.

    The trove of 40 documents, which includes alerts, intelligence reports, charts and communications from multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies, appears to undermine what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said about the level of warning the government had before the sudden influx took place. 

It adds:

    A report from Spain's spy agency sent that day to Moroccan intelligence services warned of plans on social media for migrants to enter Ceuta on July 30 by climbing a border fence separating the exclave from Morocco, or by swimming around it, the documents show. It mentioned that migrants might take advantage of Morocco's national Throne Day, celebrated on July 30.

    That same day, Spain's national intelligence agency issued similar warnings about "several groups on Facebook and WhatsApp encouraging these attempts" in messages to Spain's Civil Guard police force. 

    Once thousands of people were streaming across the border on July 30, a Defense Ministry intelligence report issued that day stated that Moroccan forces were passive and acted negligently to stop migrants.  

Al Jazeera similarly reports:

    The documents show that on July 29 – a day before more than 72,000 people began pouring into Ceuta from Morocco – Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) sent an alert via WhatsApp to the Spanish government’s delegation in the city about calls on social media “for an assault on the fence and by sea tomorrow at 8 pm”.

    “There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers,” the declassified message said, referencing social media groups, “just to give you an idea of its scale”.

    On the same day, CNI also warned Moroccan intelligence agencies DGST and DGED of plans for migrants to enter Ceuta by climbing the border fence or swimming around it. The agency mentioned that the plans could take advantage of Morocco’s national Throne Day, celebrated on July 30. 

Yet not only is PM Sanchez denying that there was prior warning, but he also denies that the Moroccan government had anything to do with the invasion despite a police intelligence report stating that Morocco was behind it. It is even more ridiculous of a stance given the evidence from the date of the rush of military age men into Ceuta. The Nation, for instance, relates:

    The human wave that entered Ceuta, including the dozens who drowned trying to get around the border fence sticking out into the sea, were not such desperate refugees, however. Video footage indicates that virtually none of them were carrying bags or other personal belongings. There are also videos showing truckloads of young men, apparently organized by the Moroccan government, being ferried to the edge of Ceuta, as well as scenes of Moroccan border guards waving them through. It even appears that Moroccan intelligence agents were among the crowd in an apparent effort to get a better sense of border security and the Spanish response. Indeed, having tens of thousands of people simultaneously appear at the frontier undoubtedly required major logistical support.

    This provocation appears to have been designed by the Moroccan regime to embarrass Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in response to his efforts to warm relations with Morocco’s longtime geopolitical rival Algeria, a key supplier of natural gas made scarce as a result of the Ukraine and Iran wars and whose president he met with the previous week. The Moroccans orchestrated a similar cross-border influx in 2021 in retaliation for Spain’s allowing Western Sahara President Brahim Ghali, whose nation Morocco claims for itself, into the country for medical treatment.

An article at the Byline Times also takes the same tack:

    It was immediately branded as a “migrant invasion” and roused the far-right on both sides of the Atlantic – but as the dust settled on the curious influx of more than 50,000 people to the border of Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta last week, some believe the incident actually shows all the hallmarks of a planned incursion, designed to put pressure on Pedro Sanchez’s socialist Government in Madrid.

    That’s the conclusion of Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, who told the Byline Times Podcast, “Some of them were indeed migrants, but whatever their status, it was clearly facilitated by the Moroccan regime. There are videos of lorry loads of young men being trucked to the border. You don’t get 50,000 people simultaneously arriving in a corner of Morocco without a fair amount of logistical support, and the Moroccan police, who usually guard the border, essentially threw the gates open. This seems very much a political effort to undermine and embarrass Sanchez and to divide Europe.” 

    Professor Zunes pointed to a similar incident in 2021 when Brahim Ghali, the President of Western Sahara – over which Morocco claims sovereignty – flew to Spain for medical treatment. Morocco responded by allowing almost 10,000 people into Ceuta and the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Melilla. “It was a shot across the bow,” he said – and one which yielded results. “Morocco has been extracting all sorts of political and economic concessions from the Spaniards, including getting Sanchez to break with nearly 50 years of Spanish policy by coming out against the idea of a referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.”

    The latest ‘provocation’ appears to have been Sanchez’s effort to improve relations with Morocco’s neighbour and rival Algeria, which has become a key source of natural gas to Spain – not least because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing paralysis in the Strait of Hormuz. Crucially, Algeria supports the right of the people in the Western Sahara to decide their own fate, including independence. “Western Sahara is recognised as a non-self-governing territory by the United Nations,” Professor Zunes explained. “That is a colony which has the right of self-determination, which which must include the option of independence – something that Morocco has not honoured. Indeed, the United States and Israel are the only two countries that have formally recognised Moroccan sovereignty [over Western Sahara].” 

An article at The Conversation, goes into more detail about the issue of the Western Sahara and Morocco's attempts to hold onto the the territory. (See also "The Ceuta Migrant Wave Was a Power Play by Morocco Against Spain" from the National Review). 

    But while all this explains Morocco's actions, it doesn't explain why Sanchez's government chose to do nothing. In a recent speech, PM Sanchez defended the planned construction of additional migrant facilities in Ceuta, telling the Spanish citizens living there that they must plan on mass immigration through the territory as a new "structural reality".  From the article:

    Sánchez argued that Ceuta consequently needs ‘far greater migrant reception capacity’. The city of around 84,000 residents had little more than 1,000 reception places before the invasion, while reports that the reception centre was operating at more than 300 per cent of capacity emerged days after the border breaches. Madrid has since activated more than 3,500 places and plans to increase capacity to 6,000 while illegal migrants are being processed.

    Important reminder: Sánchez claimed days after the mass invasion that the situation was under control and that most of the migrants had been returned. More than a month has since passed, and the government is expanding capacity to 6,000 while thousands more remain unidentified, wandering around and causing chaos in the enclave.

    Sánchez also rejected describing those who crossed as invaders. ‘We are not talking about invaders,’ he said, but mostly about people ‘looking for a better life’ and opportunities unavailable in Morocco. He later said Spain, as Europe’s frontline in Africa, faces ‘a migratory reality that we have to work with’.

One of the key characteristic about liberals is the lack of in-group loyalty for fellow citizens. Thus, I see Sanchez's actions as his attempts to change the demographic makeup of Spain and Europe; and his viewing Ceuta as a means of doing so. This advances other political objectives as migrants have traditionally been more supportive of socialist movements and politicians. 

    And this inherent "traitor" attitude among liberals and leftists is why PM Sanchez doesn't care that "[m]ore than a month later, Spanish prosecutors say sexual assaults are happening almost every day in Ceuta. Twenty-three rapes or attempted rapes, including nine against children, have been recorded in Ceuta since the mass influx occurred," or that five to ten thousand invaders remain--in fact, as noted above, the Spanish government intends on building shelters for these remaining invaders.   

    But his actions also advance the interests of the European elites as this piece from the Daily Express discusses:

    In Spain, the government of Pedro Sanchez has taken every possible step to undermine Spanish sovereignty. Not only does Sanchez prefer to draw his authority from international institutions rather than the Spanish people, but he has deliberately undermined the very existence of Spain as a sovereign entity. His mass amnesty for illegal migrants, which by some accounts will now number some 2 million people, has called into question the very concept of Spain’s border integrity and the integrity of the Spanish people.

    It has also called into question the key elements of the European Union. Not for the first time, countries are openly questioning the wisdom of free movement within the EU. While some European elites are wary of Sanchez’s actions, and recognise how desperately he acts to distract and protect himself from the spiralling allegations of corruption concerning him and his political and personal family, Sanchez is only enacting on a grand scale the practises of globalist elites.

    The European institutions have overseen the creation of a vast legal and bureaucratic system which undermines sovereignty and border integrity at every turn. The tangled web of Strasbourg, Luxembourg and national courts has made serious attempts to control the border effectively impossible, and rendered equally unlikely serious attempts to return those who have no right to be in Europe. Let us remember: the most significant EU action in relation to borders was not to defend them, but to penalise financially the Hungarian government which attempted to protect its borders.

    Thus, whatever qualities this influx has as an invasion, it is far better understood as a surrender. This collapse of the integrity of Spanish territory is the logical consequence of a political elite who have surrendered any attachment to national sovereignty. Surrendering sovereignty is logically equivalent to the surrender of territory.