The former Secretary of State for Security with the government of Mariano Rajoy, between 2013 and 2016, is placed at the core of the Catalunya operation against the independence movement, in addition to being affected by the Kitchen case, but after years of silence he has decided to break his silence to deny the greatest. Martínez not only denies his responsibility in these matters but also assures that “Nothing similar to Operation Catalunya ever existed.”
This was stated in statements to El Món to RAC1 this Tuesday, as a consequence of the latest revelations published by La Vanguardia and ElDiario.es that precisely go in the opposite direction, reinforcing the idea that this prospective operation and outside of legality against independence really happened. “There was never anything similar”, nor “precedents” “nor execution or distribution of roles”, and only “there were police actions within the (competence) of the judicial police” with the aim of “clarifying criminal acts”, he assured. .
According to Martínez, there were also “other” actions aimed at “prevention or preparation of information with the purpose of collecting information.” They were therefore actions of “police intelligence”, and “many of the police actions have nothing to do with each other: some are judicial, others intelligence… And I did not have any leading role,” the former secretary of Security State.
After a long time of silence, Martínez’s statements in RAC1 contrast with those he published a year ago in ‘El Independiente’, in which he indicated that Rajoy’s government identified the independence movement as a “threat of the first magnitude”: – ” There was a strategy in the field of police intelligence or information to stop any threat of serious crimes against the constitutional order and this threat (the independence movement) became of the first magnitude,” the media stated.
The information that has appeared so far thanks to the investigation by La Vanguardia and ElDiario.es places him in the middle of the operation along with Eugenio Pino, the head of the Spanish National Police at that time. Both were coordinating to, supposedly, lead a team with several senior police officers. In addition, the plot had the collaboration of former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, who worked closely with the parapolice unit, who under Martínez’s mandate prepared the information notes for Minister Fernández Díaz.
Franscisco Martínez appears in countless conversations, both audio and WhatsApp, talking about the various branches of the Catalunya operation: the maneuvers of the Spanish police in Andorra, the alleged accounts of Xavier Trias and Artur Mas in Switzerland and the false information about Podemos. Among those published, those that stood out were those that spoke of “making noise” against the Pujol family, with police records, or of finding documents that compromised Xavier Trias as an independence leader.
But Martínez has denied everything. To begin with, prospective operations against the independence movement. “I was never informed, nor was I aware of investigations not based on indications of the commission of crimes,” he said. The former leader has only admitted the possibility that the information collected was not true or was doubtful or not entirely accurate, but “that is different from having been aware of or aware of prospective investigations. These investigations are prohibited in any State of law,” has remembered.
Martínez has explained that the investigation initiatives “always arose from the security forces and bodies”, but he has denied that “instructions were given on what should or should not be investigated”, but rather that they acted “based on evidence, publications, confidants, informants….” He has also denied the responsibility of the former PP minister, of whom he has assured that “of course he never said ‘we are going to investigate Mas'”, but rather that “criminal evidence was presented” that, “if they were not true, solvent, that is wrong”, but he has insisted that “we must not confuse the fact of consciously giving instructions for a false investigation with the fact that the evidence was not such or did not have sufficient significance”.
Francisco Martínez has also denied that they were aware that the information about the (false) accounts in Switzerland of the former mayor of Barcelona, ??Xavier Trias Trias, was false. As he has said, “there was never knowledge or remote intuition that there could be false information against anyone.” The former leader has denied having any knowledge about it or that there was any “conscious intention” that he was trying to “use something false to harm anyone.”
In the Kitchen case, which aimed to sabotage the investigation into the Popular Party’s B accounting, specifically, by stealing from Luis Bárcenas all the compromised documentation on the party’s irregular financing, Martínez has also denied any responsibility. “I have been trying for years to explain that this never existed and after many years of investigation we are accused of having stolen evidence that could incriminate PP leaders and we do not know what evidence, who it incriminated… We are investigating a murder and there is no death,” has settled.
