The Diplomat
Camilo Villarino, former director of the Cabinet of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha González Laya, has admitted to the judge that it was he who asked the General Staff of the Air Force to let the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, enter Spain without passing “customs or immigration” controls.
According to the official letter sent in mid-July by Villarino himself to the Zaragoza judge investigating the case, to which Efe news agency and the newspapers El Confidencial and El Español have had access, the then chief of staff of the former minister telephoned last April 18 to the second chief of the Air Force General Staff, Francisco Javier Fernández Sánchez, to warn him that a plane coming from Algeria was about to land in Zaragoza with Ghali inside.
In his conversation with Villarino, the military man asked Gonzalez Laya’s right-hand man if it was necessary for Ghali to undergo “customs or immigration formalities”. “The undersigned answered that it was not necessary, this answer being perfectly coherent with both the established practice and the applicable legislation in force”. he assured the judge in his official letter. “The person who communicated by telephone with the Air Staff on April 18 was the undersigned, Camilo Villarino Marzo, director of the Cabinet of the minister”, the official letter continues.
The Ministry of Defense recently assured that communications with Foreign Affairs were carried out “telephonically” and were “both verbal and through the WhatsApp application.” For that reason, the judge of the Court of Instruction number 7 of Zaragoza, Rafael Lasala, who is investigating the alleged crimes of passport forgery, prevarication and concealment related to the Ghali case, has asked to be given the WhatsApp messages between the head of Foreign Affairs and the Air Staff, which could constitute the main evidence to determine the circumstances of Ghali’s entry into Spain.
The Government has asked for Russia’s approval to appoint Camilo Villarino as ambassador in Moscow, but his possible involvement in the Ghali case could compromise this appointment. However, his departure from the Cabinet (in which he has been replaced by Diego Martínez Belío), as well as the arrival at the Ministry of José Manuel Albares in place of González Laya, could help to clear the way for a rapprochement with Morocco.
The irregular entry into Spain of Ghali -who was transferred from Zaragoza to a hospital in Logroño after contracting COVID-19- became the main trigger of the serious diplomatic crisis Spain and Morocco are going through, which resulted in a massive and uncontrolled entry of immigrants into Ceuta with Rabat’s complicity, as well as in a call for consultations of the Moroccan ambassador in Madrid and a whole series of public accusations against Spain.
Although Albares pledged, in his first words after taking office, to “strengthen relations with Morocco, a great friend and neighbor to the south”, to date no contact has been made between the new minister and the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, with whom Arancha Gonzalez Laya has not been able to speak since the crisis broke out. Nor has a trip to Rabat been scheduled, despite the fact that this is usually the first traditional destination of Spanish foreign ministers after taking office.
