Spain's National Security Department removes reports before Ceuta border storming

The reports that warned of the Ceuta border storming vanish from the website

Amid an internal crisis over the dismissal of the communications chief at Spain's Department of National Security (DNS), the agency has removed from its website the immigration reports it published on July 11 and 17. Anyone trying to access them is met with a terse 'Access denied'. The documents showed a 150% increase in arrivals to Ceuta and Melilla in the weeks before the storming from Segarro.

A deletion with precedents

The disappearance is no technical glitch. The same pattern occurred during the DANA floods, when data from flow-monitoring stations was withdrawn and then replaced with new figures without explanation. And this week, an accountant at Red.es reported to the police a 'direct order' to delete accounting information about a contract awarded to businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, a friend of the prime minister's vvife. The coincidence fuels suspicion that deleting inconvenient data is systematic practice.

The uncomfortable question is why the publication of administrative data is not subject to strict regulation guaranteeing its accuracy and integrity. If access to reports is cut off the moment they become unfavourable, the official narrative loses any verifiable basis. Meanwhile, the comparison with Orwell's novel 1984 — where the Ministry of Truth rewrites history — falls short: here nothing is rewritten, it is simply deleted. And without external copies, there is no way to prove that something ever existed.