When the tension increased process, in Europe the independence propaganda networks had left a clear message: Spain steals from us, Spain pressures us, we are right. While Mariano Rajoy worked to stop the independence movement here, the separatists had won the story there. For this reason, since the end of 2017 the priority of the Foreign Ministry was to put its diplomats to work to reverse the message. With Josep Borrell, with First Gonzalez Laya and with José Manuel Albares, the members of the diplomatic corps were used to explain the reality of what happened in Spain before and after the 1-O. But that effort ended a few months ago. It was stated that it was not necessary to combat independent propaganda because it had been deactivated. And now years of counterpropaganda have exploded in the faces of those officials who told the truth.
“We are frustrated, because the deactivation work of recent years is going to be ignored by the State itself.” That is the feeling of three members of the Diplomatic School involved in countering Catalan propaganda in Europe. In fact, they point to the paragraph of the document signed between PSOE and Junts: “These judicial cases have had a relevant political impact, as have various resolutions of international organizations, such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, the United Nations Human Rights Committeehe Court of Justice of the European Unionhe European Court of Human Rights o to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe».
No one dares to give their name, because they fear the consequences. “No one in the Ministry has sent a letter with instructions, but if you want to progress you already know what you have to do,” he summarizes. Because the diplomatic career is governed by freely appointed positions, and this could mean, they fear, “four years as a civil servant in Madrid,” they say.
The amnesty is dividing the Diplomatic corps between those who believe that there should be a forceful response and those who believe that their work is far from politics. At the moment, more than fifty diplomats as important as Fernando Almansaformer head of the King’s Houseo Inocencio Arias They have signed a manifesto that we publish on these pages. But they are all retired.
The diplomat Javier Benosa wrote a column in this newspaper called Amnesty and diplomatic silence on November 3. After the publication, he has not responded to EL MUNDO’s contacts for this report, despite the fact that a newspaper in Andalusia points to his imminent dismissal. In addition, the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) sent a statement to its members to “flatly reject the unfair criticism by insinuating an alleged apathy when it comes to defending the constitutional order abroad.”