In the net set up by Spain's Civil Guard to decapitate the pro-independence leadership team preparing the referendum, on the orders of the judge in Barcelona's court of instruction number 13, the police have intercepted, during phone calls, references to Catalan businessperson Jaume Roures, founder of multimedia group Mediapro.
Among the conversations recorded are two including Josep Maria Jové, secretary general of the Catalan ministries of the Vice-presidency and the Economy. One, with businessperson Oriol Soler, considered by the Civil Guard to be one of the ideologues behind the independence process, and another, on 23rd September, with the former head of the Catalan government's legal services, Margarida Gil, which the gendarmerie believe betrays Roures.
With this material, the Civil Guard has produced a new report which El Nacional has seen.
Soler called Jové on 7th August to ask for an urgent meeting, since that very morning he had a meeting with Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, presidents of pro-independence organisations Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly respectively, to talk about a matter "which they had talked about previously". Soler couldn't attend the meeting without first asking him "something" to find out "what he had to explain to them", the Civil Guard says.
In that same conversation, Soler indicated to Jové, vice-president Oriol Junqueras's number 2, that, after his meeting with the 'Jordis', he had "the one with Roures" who, according to the Civil Guard, could refer to Jaume Roures.
Mediapro set up, in their Barcelona headquarters, the centre from which the Catalan government gave their press conferences on the 1st October, the day of the referendum.
Turull, Junqueras and Romeva on the evening of referendum day in the Mediapro press centre / EFE
The Civil Guard's report notes that the Enfocats strategy document proposes adding Jaume Roures to the executive committee which allegedly directed the strategy of the independence process "as a professional expert in the area of communications".
The Civil Guard explains that following the calls, Mediapro "produced the '1-O' video, broadcast by TV3 [Catalan public TV] which narrated the events related to the referendum, praised the people who were able to make it effective and broadcast messages which interested the pro-independence cause".
"The senior leaders of the independence movement are aware that social media plays a fundamental role in their communication actions", and, as such, "counting on the support of a providor of audiovisual services like Mediapro would allow for broadcasting the pro-independence message to a larger audience", the text says.
The document details three times when Josep Maria Jové spoke with different people about Roures's supposed involvement in the independence process. It talks about creating a "documentary which was meant to revolve around everyone because the idea was to make a document for history". Months later, TV3 premiered 1-O, el documental (1st October, the documentary), which narrates the events of the day of the referendum and led in audience share.