MADRID, Spain – The government has still not clarified why it did not publicly report that Moroccan warships entered Ceuta’s waters without authorisation on 30 and 31 July, coinciding with the mass entry of migrants into the autonomous city. Although the episode forced the Spanish Navy to intervene, the executive downplays it and reduces it to a “one-off event,” of the kind that can occur between two neighbouring countries separated by the Strait of Gibraltar.
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It is the same explanation offered on Monday by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in an informal chat with journalists during the National Day reception and repeated on Tuesday by government spokeswoman Elma Saiz, without clarifying why what happened had not been made public until now. At the press conference following Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Saiz avoided answering directly the question about the reasons why the government had not reported the incursion of the Moroccan vessels. Instead, she insisted that those days saw a situation of “extraordinary tension” due to the mass entry of people from Morocco, but defended that communication with the neighbouring country was “fluid and constant.” The spokeswoman closed the matter by assuring that it was a “one-off event that was resolved with absolute normality,” while championing good diplomatic relations with Rabat, saying that diplomatic relations with Morocco fall within the fluidity and good relations with a neighbouring country.
The one who was aware of what happened was Felipe VI, according to sources from Zarzuela, who told Europa Press that the monarch was informed by the government of the entry of the Moroccan vessels into Ceuta’s waters, although the Royal Household has not specified when he received that information. Moncloa also does not specify at what moment the events were conveyed to the head of state, though government sources assure that in any case it would have been done within the framework of the usual conversations with the King and not through an urgent or maximum-gravity communication. The revelation of these incidents coincides precisely with the first visit of Felipe VI and Letizia to Ceuta, a trip of special political and diplomatic significance given Morocco’s historical claims to sovereignty over the autonomous city.
The normality defended by the executive contrasts, however, with the dimension of the incident. According to El País, at least one frigate and several patrol boats of the Royal Moroccan Navy entered without authorisation into waters under Spanish sovereignty, in incursions that lasted during the first days of August and that generated a risk of collision between military vessels of both countries. The Spanish Navy had to deploy its own ships, first the frigate Santa María, which suffered a breakdown and was replaced by the Navarra, to deter Morocco and put an end to these movements.
This deployment shows that the episode went beyond a simple transit of vessels through a maritime area shared by two neighbouring countries. From Moncloa, for its part, they deny that there was any intention to hide what happened and defend that it is a matter that should be resolved directly between Spain and Morocco. Government sources insist that this type of situation is not unusual in a maritime space like the Strait of Gibraltar, where the proximity between the two countries makes permanent dialogue necessary. “It is not the Pacific,” the executive argues graphically to play down the incident.
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However, the explanation does not clear up the main unknown: why an unauthorised military incursion, which required a response from the Spanish Navy, did not merit a public communication from the government. Moncloa also does not clarify what explanations Rabat offered about these movements. The lack of explanations takes on special relevance after the government itself championed its transparency in managing the Ceuta crisis. Last September, the Council of Ministers approved the declassification of 40 documents related to those events, including reports from the intelligence services and security forces. The executive defended then that it had “nothing to hide” about what happened at the border, but the incursion of the Moroccan vessels did not become public until more than two months later.
