The annual US government report on human rights around the world has highlighted, in its Spanish section, two cases related to Catalan independence: the case of pro-independence activist Roger Español who lost an eye to a police rubber bullet on October 1st 2017; and several aspects of the Catalangate affair in which Pegasus spyware was massively used in espionage against the Catalan independence movement, an issue which it had already treated with credibility in the previous year's report. The document, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Spain, is a comprehensive document prepared every year since 1997 by the US State Department on human rights violations around the world, intended to guide the United States Congress when deciding on the foreign aid that is granted to each country. The Catalan question and the Spanish repression of the movement have been present in the report for several years, and the pattern is continued in the latest summary, published this Tuesday.
While it notes that "there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Spain during the year" and that "there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses", the document does recall that steps had to taken in 2023 to "identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses." Thus, in the section on "Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and other related abuses", the US declares that it had been reported that "agents of the security forces have used these practices" and notes that on September 15th, 2023 a court in Barcelona ordered five Spanish police officers to stand trial on their involvement in the incident in which Roger Español lost an eye on October 1st, 2017.
From Roger Español to Catalangate
Regarding "Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence," the document notes that "there were reports that, in some cases, the government may have failed to respect the prohibitions" in this area. To back this up, it refers to the demand made by the UN in January for the Spanish government to thoroughly investigate the espionage against pro-independence supporters. The report also recalls how the Spanish executive used Pegasus on at least 65 mobile phones of Catalan independence activists between 2017 and 2020—including some Catalan presidents, MEPs and lawyers. Finally, it highlights how Members of the European Parliament called on the Spanish authorities to continue cooperating with investigations into spyware and urged the Pedro Sánchez executive to reform the official secrets act to modify the framework that regulates the National Intelligence Centre (CNI).
Meanwhile, the country reports dealing with other parts of the world show that the US is increasingly concerned about the death of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip. It also points to "crimes against humanity" committed by the Russian military in the second year of its invasion of Ukraine, criticizes Uganda's anti-LGBTBI law and notes the existence of "political prisoners" in both Cuba and Nicaragua.