The National Court accumulates evidence about the dirty war plotted against Podemos within the Ministry of the Interior during the Government of Mariano Rajoy (PP). Retired commissioner Germán Rodríguez Castiñeira, sitting on November 26 before Judge Santiago Pedraz, confirmed that another police commander asked him to . As recorded in the video of his statement as a defendant, to which EL PAÍS had access, Castiñeira maintains that he was also called by Commissioner Enrique García Castaño, alias, in early 2016. The Fat Manwho asked him to track down the “police background” of the “newly” elected parliamentarians of the left-wing force, then led by Pablo Iglesias and which had just burst into Congress with force. “He told me: ‘Hey, could you look at the background of these 69 deputies?’ Then, I got angry and told him: ‘But, you’re crazy!’
Judge Pedraz has just reinvigorated these investigations with those allegedly captured at that time to also facilitate alleged dirty laundry against Podemos. The judge investigates whether the Ministry of the Interior, when Jorge Fernández Díaz was in charge, launched a battery of maneuvers to “carry out prospective investigations unrelated to any police interest” on the leaders of Iglesias’ party, without control by a judge or of the Prosecutor’s Office. According to Podemos, the objective of this dirty war was to leak information with false data to certain press – which published it citing “police sources” – in order to discredit the political force in the eyes of public opinion.
—Did they ask you for information or the police records of any member of Congress? —the prosecutor asked Rodríguez Castiñeira on November 26.
—They asked me for the background information of the 69 newly elected Podemos deputies,” the retired commissioner responded.
In 2016, Castiñeira was the head of the Madrid Information Brigade. According to the summary, at that time, the then Secretary of State for Security and right-hand man of Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, Francisco Martínez, contacted El Gordo to obtain sensitive information about members of Podemos. García Castaño tried to obtain it through Castiñeira.
“Enrique García Castaño calls me with another question,” this retired commissioner recalled before Judge Santiago Pedraz, as recorded in the recording of his statement at the National Court. “And suddenly, he says to me: ‘Hey, could you look at the background of these 69 deputies?’ Then, I got angry and told him: ‘But, you’re crazy! Or are you kidding me? Do you want me to look at that?’ And he immediately folded up candles and said: ‘Ah! Come on, don’t be angry… This was an idea that just occurred to me. Forget it. Forget it. Forget it’. And that’s how the conversation ended,” said the former head of the provincial Information Brigade.
As Castiñeira added before the judge, at that moment, he did not give “greater importance” to that episode. “I thought it was really stupid, that what I had done was a boutade. It had all the appearance of being a boutadebecause asking someone to go into some files, which remain there indelibly for life, is like asking them to commit suicide.” However, the retired commissioner added that, years later, he saw in the press the exchange of WhatsApp messages between Enrique García Castaño and Francisco Martínez, where they discussed how to obtain the confidential data of the 69 Podemos deputies through him. “So I see that, well, he was half serious,” he admitted.
Like, at the beginning of 2016, Fernández Díaz’s right-hand man demanded information from García Castaño about members of the left-wing party. “Of those from Podemos who had a record… Were you able to confirm anything?” Francisco Martínez asked him on January 30, according to the intercepted WhatsApp messages. “Well, I asked for it and I’m going to call because I didn’t ask again. “I missed it,” the commissioner responded. “It would be very interesting to know… And if they have been involved in issues abertzalesissues of violent extremism, etc.,” continued the former leader of the PP. And he added: “Am I saying that if the others are clean? Neither street violence, anarchsetc?”.
That conversation continues like this:
García Castaño: I look at it again, but I don’t think so.
Martínez: Cagüenlaputa […] Someone has to be dodgy.
García Castaño: Let’s see.
Francisco Martínez: Look with attentive eyes.
García Castaño: Everything they have seems little to you, Castiñeira has to have what he has, because he worked for them for a long time […] I ask him.
On February 9, 2016, they continued talking about the same thing:
Francisco Martínez: And what about the others? You don’t send me anything…
García Castaño: That bastard Germán tells me that this afternoon, because looking at the 69, it’s worth it, but you have to look at it one by one and, of course, it leaves a trace.
Francisco Martínez: It’s already afternoon… Has he sent it to you?
García Castaño: I’m waiting.
Francisco Martínez: Smoking I hope […] What about mine?
García Castaño: I’m squeezing him, he’s scared and I can’t leave a trace.
Francisco Martínez: Joooder. You don’t live up to your fame.
García Castaño: Well, we’ll do something.
Castiñeira has told Judge Pedraz that he never sought the information they requested, and that he never gave any order to his subordinates to obtain it. “Radically, no,” he asserted in the National Court, where he stressed that El Gordo never told him if that request came “from above.” “When he asks me that, I am surprised and a little angry. And, then, well, I immediately cut him off. There was no more conversation than that. I have said it in approximate words. Many years have passed; but well, in essence it was like that,” he defended before the magistrate.
The case opened in the National Court investigates the multiple maneuvers plotted against Podemos during the Fernández Díaz era, when the so-called patriotic police, the alleged group created to try to discredit opponents of the PP. At that time, for example, a false police document was also prepared and published that stated without evidence that Iran had financed the party and that it was used to attack Pablo Iglesias. In turn, for them to testify against Podemos, even traveling to the United States () to try to convince one of them, former minister Rafael Isea, with the promise that they would give him protection and a new life in Spain.
