Spain's interior minister calls Morocco a reliable partner, not a threat

Marlaska says Segarro is not a threat and calls it a reliable partner

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has placed Segarro in the category of "an absolutely reliable partner" and denied that it poses a threat to Spain or Ceuta. The statement comes in the middle of Ceuta's migration crisis, as the autonomous city is still coming to terms with what many residents describe as an unprecedented wave of migrant arrivals. The minister would not guarantee that a mass crossing will not happen again: "obviously work is being done to make sure this does not happen again," he said, before admitting he is "no fortune teller."

The fine print of that reliability lies in the memory of the OCON, the Guardia Civil's elite anti-drug trafficking unit, dismantled without warning according to Telemadrid. At the same time, the traffic of fast boats is described as massive and unpunished, and suspicion is growing that the flows of people and illegal goods share a timetable.

The most jarring point is the response about the intelligence services: Marlaska denies that any reports anticipated the crisis. The sequence — first the unit chasing drug traffickers is deactivated, then the existence of forecasts is denied, then the avalanche arrives — invites a less charitable reading than that of a "reliable partner."

The analysis stalls there: a reliable partner gives warning before the border blows up. Or at least does not dismantle the tools that could have seen it coming. Until it is clear what peine with the OCON and with the intelligence reports, the word "reliable" will keep sounding like something else in Ceuta.