The informative notes that Former Spanish police commissioner and collaborator with the 'patriotic police' brigade, José Manuel Villarejo, sent to the Spanish ministry of the Interior, contradict Francisco Martínez, former Spanish Secretary of State for security, who denied the existence of a dirty war against the Catalan pro-independence movement. In the recordings to which ElNacional.cat has had access, Villarejo points to Martínez as the sole responsible for informing Mariano Rajoy's government and the PP about his activities. In one of these conversations, in which they consider sharing a new leak to the press, they boast about the impact of the 2012 leak of the false UDEF (Spanish Economic and Tax Crime Police Unit) draft published in the El Mundo newspaper about Jordi Pujol's and Artur Mas' accounts in Switzerland.
This Tuesday, the former Spanish Secretary of State for security and right-hand man of the Spanish minister of interior Jorge Fernández Díaz, denied in statements to radio Rac1 any relation with the dirty war against the Catalan pro-independence movement, assured there was no Operation Catalonia and that all police action taken during the Procés was within the law.
"Don't put the UDEF label"
This is not what the recordings of his conversations with Villarejo show. In one of the recordings, dated August 2014, the former commissioner complains to Francisco Martínez that the business dealings which Ignacio López del Hierro, husband of María Dolores de Cospedal, former PP's secretary, conducted with former Catalan president, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, were very damaging to the party's image.
Given that López del Hierro denies this link, the former commissioner proposes "leaking a little something" from his first Information Note on Operation Catalunya, dated 2012, to show that this went back a long way. "If you want, I'll take care of it", he offers. Faced with the proposal, Francisco Martínez jumps in: "Don't put the UDEF label or anything like that", he demands, referencing the false Economic and Tax Crime Police Unit draft which was leaked to El Mundo in 2012, in the middle of the Catalan election campaign for Parliament, reporting accounts of Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas in Switzerland.
"No, no, I don't label them any more.... That was a one-off case, it was fundamental to do so", replies Villarejo, who then jokes with the Spanish Secretary of State for security about the scandal which the leak represented, which they experienced "very closely". "Don't tell me," his interlocutor recalls with a smile, both agreeing that it was a "difficult" moment. Villarejo concludes: "You were responsible for changing Spain". Faced with Martínez's comments downplaying his role, Villarejo insists. "This work will be studied one day when the files are released, as Americans do, because it was a great fucking job. And that was the beginning of the end for them," he concludes, regarding the fake UDEF draft leak.
The recording makes clear the extent of the ministry's number two's involvement in all details of the dirty war against the Catalan pro-independence movement. When Villarejo tells him that Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's ex-girlfriend, Victoria Álvarez, feels cheated by the leader of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, who had promised her money which she had not been paid for her collaboration in the Camarga recording, Francisco Martínez asks him: "We have fulfilled our obligations, haven't we? "With money, yes. And we continue to do so", replies Villarejo.
Single interlocutor
In the same conversation from August 2014, which took place in a karaoke bar in Madrid, Villarejo refers to the confusion caused in his work by the interference of former Minister of Defence, María Dolores de Cospedal, and asks Martínez that "to avoid tensions" he should be "the only communication channel". He assures "it's a very bad look" that information from "El Barbas" [Mariano Rajoy] reaches him via the party and the ministry". "Many things have been misunderstood because of this double channel. She takes advantage and so does him. And what's more, they don't pay", he reproaches.
Everything points to the fact that Villarejo's proposal ended up going through, given that a note from March 2015 makes this function of the Secretary of State official. This note, which details very disparate issues, states in the last paragraph: "The current Spanish Secretary of State for security has been punctually and personally informed of each one of these pieces of information". The reason for this channel of communication, it adds, is that "at the time the DAO [Spanish Police Deputy Director of Operations, Eugenio Pino] asked for this direct relationship with JV [Villarejo] to try to avoid Cosidó [General Director of the Spanish national Police], because he depended on him".
The note ends by stating that both the Spanish Police Deputy Director of Operations and the Spanish Secretary of State for security "declare they have full confidence in Villarejo as a servant of the State and, therefore, he is incapable of harming any of the institutions in any way". These statements, given the current situation, sound as if a notary was speaking.