Less than three weeks before Spain’s snap general election, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faces renewed scrutiny over Ceuta’s mass invasion after protected witnesses implicated Moroccan officers in facilitating the operation and intelligence records exposed previously undisclosed warnings.
On Tuesday, 10 November, four protected witnesses testified before the National High Court. According to El Español, they identified more than a dozen Moroccan security commanders and described officers pushing migrants into the sea and directing them towards Ceuta. One witness said riot police controlled a barrier, allowing groups of roughly 400 people to advance at a time.
Police investigators had already identified two senior Moroccan commanders in footage recorded at the frontier. A September report from the National Police’s immigration and border unit, CENIF, described indications of an organized operation involving Moroccan security personnel.
Addressing parliament on 3 September, Sánchez insisted that no Spanish intelligence agency, diplomatic service, European institution or international body had provided ‘solid evidence’ that Morocco planned or executed the invasion. Instead, he blamed a combination of social-media rumours, criminal profiteers and, of course, Russia and Israel, arguing that these factors had interacted ‘probably not in a coordinated manner’. He also reiterated his earlier position that Spain ‘must continue to cooperate with Morocco’.
Sánchez also denied receiving extraordinary advance warnings. Yet documents released in September showed that the CNI alerted the government delegation in Ceuta and the Civil Guard on 29 July to calls for a mass border assault the following day, which circulated through online groups comprising around 180,000 members. The agency maintains that it could not predict the eventual scale.
Gonzalo Sanz, chief of staff to the government delegate in Ceuta, resigned amid a dispute over whether he had passed on the warning. On 6 November, Cadena SER reported that Secretary of State for Security Aina Calvo omitted the specific CNI warning to the Civil Guard from a chronology submitted to investigators.
Nor was the border breach the only violation of Spanish sovereignty kept from public view. On 12 October, Sánchez finally acknowledged that Moroccan warships had entered Ceuta’s territorial waters during the crisis, dismissing the incursions as isolated incidents despite Spain having deployed naval vessels to confront them.
For Ceuta, the price of Madrid’s failure to contain the invasion has been concrete. Of the more than 80,000 who invaded at the end of July, between 5,000 and 10,000 remain in the enclave. Prosecutors recorded 35 reported sexual assaults by mid-September, including attacks on migrant minors, and identified increases in property crime and offences involving resistance to police. The city’s Chamber of Commerce estimated economic losses of up to €74 million.
Even on 10 November, 3,668 unaccompanied minors remained in Ceuta’s care, while authorities were only beginning to dismantle the emergency port camps. Sánchez’s assurances of control ring hollow against that record.
After the recent revelations, it is becoming increasingly clear that Sánchez and members of his government, as well as the Ceuta government delegation, bear responsibility for what happened. Right-wing Vox had already sought criminal accountability, filing a complaint against Sánchez, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Calvo, accusing them of concealment, failure to pursue crimes and collaboration with terrorism.
Separately, Vox called for parliamentary backing to pursue treason proceedings under Article 102 of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court dismissed the complaint on 4 November for insufficient individualized evidence, but said the National High Court’s ongoing investigation could still uncover grounds for proceedings against senior officials.
On 10 November, Sánchez’s government approved further CNI declassification at Judge María Tardón’s request. With the 29 November election approaching, the Socialists trail the PP by 27.1 to 31.1 per cent in November polling, while Vox stands at 18.9 per cent. The exposure of Sánchez’s already obviously false account of what happened in Ceuta adds to mounting pressure over housing, corruption scandals and October’s deadly train crash.