Defusing international support for Catalan independence had its price, former Spanish Foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo confessed in March, saying that many favours had been done for different countries, including some in Europe, to drop their sympathies for the Catalan movement.
Among them, Spanish online newspaper Público reports, was the sending of a large military contingent to Latvia, the Baltic republic having given signs of official support for a potential declaration of independence in Catalonia. This was defined in the agenda of the last meeting of the joint committee of National Security, as confirmed by former minister Margallo, the commission's president.
According to Margallo, Spain's Foreign minister from 2011 to 2016, Rajoy changed Latvia's attitude to Catalonia by sending a contingent of 313 soldiers and 80 vehicles to monitor the Russian border. In 2013, Latvia had given support to the holding of a self-determination referendum.
The former minister said that the exchange meant "putting interests and priorities on the table"; for Rajoy's executive that was the "unity of Spain" for the Latvian government, their complicated relationship with their neighbour Russia.
In these circumstances, Spain offered to send the soldiers and demanded, "in fair return", that Latvia support Spanish territorial integrity.
A small army
The detachment sent to Latvia is, in reality, a small army formed of more than 300 soldiers, but, more importantly, more than 80 armoured vehicles, including Leopard 2E battle tanks and Pizarro fighting vehicles.
What's more, due to the political motivation for the deployment, it was hidden from the Congress and approved by the cabinet, without communicating their destination.
Cospedal says they're defending "Spanish families"
This Tuesday, Spanish Defence minister, María Dolores de Cospedal visited Spanish troops on the Russian border, saying that they are defending "the interests of their country and the security of Spanish families", a statement which, after Margallo's revelation, has to be understood as another weapon in the fight against the independence movement, although 3,000km away.
Cospedal herself fell victim to a prank by Russian comedians offering to send Latvian tanks to intervene in Catalonia.