Efe distorted a statement by the head of the Spanish Navy regarding illegal immigration

One of the worst scourges of Spanish journalism is the tendency to manipulate information to serve certain political interests.

A helicopter crashes into the credibility of Spanish journalism
The infamous report of Efe, controlled by Sánchez, whitewashing the Hamas chief

These manipulations are becoming increasingly common at the Efe news agency, a public company controlled by Pedro Sánchez's government, which is increasingly publishing biased and even outright false headlines in line with the government's political slogans. That was precisely what happened yesterday.

The Chief Admiral of the General Staff of the Spanish Navy (AJEMA), Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro Sánchez, participated in a conference at the New Economy Forum. The full video of the conference can be seen here. Once that event was over, and through its Twitter account and its website, the Efe agency published this misleading headline: "The head of the Navy answers Vox: "We are not here to contain the dugout canoes, but to help them."

In journalism, when a statement is quoted, it refers to something that a person said. In this case, AJEMA did not say the words that Efe attributes to him. You can check this out for yourself by watching the corresponding section of the video. The question posed by Vox MP Javier Ortega Smith can be heard at 45:40 (I have inserted the video so that it starts playing at that point) and then comes Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro's response (The video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

Many people and media outlets have believed the misleading Efe headline, and based on this, news stories and comments have been published on social media that distort the words of AJEMA, implying that the head of the Spanish Navy meant to say that his duty is to aid illegal human trafficking, when he said just the opposite. This morning, at 8:17 a.m., Javier Ortega Smith has pointed out what AJEMA really said in response to the question from the Vox deputy. You can read the translation of AJEMA's response to Ortega Smith here:

"Well, on the issue of immigration, I'm going to be very clear, very clear, because it's a mandate that the law of the sea says and that says: The Navy, if a cayuco is found at sea, its main mission is to save people if they're in danger. And there's no more. Let no one think that the Navy is going to be fighting illegal immigration or whatever at sea. We will be able to fight the mafias with sufficient intelligence wherever we are ordered, with a plan or with or with whatever.

We will be able to identify the vessels that transport or carry out these activities in order to arrest them and bring them to justice so they can be tried, as we are doing in Atalanta with piracy or with emerging ones. But let no one expect, let no one expect that a Navy ship, faced with a situation of this type, is going to proceed to remove them or anything like that.

The only mission a ship of the Navy, or any Western Navy, can perform is to help people. Let there be no doubt about that, no doubt about it. And that's what we can do.

The rest is a matter, I think it is above the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces can serve as a tool for many things. To help the countries of origin. We are doing it. We have a ship permanently in the Gulf of Guinea, we work a lot with Mauritania to provide Mauritania with solutions to prevent immigration and prevent that exodus. And of course, but it is a problem that is more of the government, and it is not a question of passing the buck or anything like that, I am also part of the administration, but it is the government's responsibility, at the political level and using the Armed Forces at the level they believe we should act at.

The rest is a matter, I think it is above the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces can serve as a tool for many things. To help the countries of origin. We are doing it. We have a ship permanently in the Gulf of Guinea, we work a lot with Mauritania to provide Mauritania with solutions to prevent immigration and prevent that exodus. And of course, but it is a problem that is more of the government, and it is not a question of passing the buck or anything like that, I am also part of the administration, but it is the government's responsibility, at the political level and using the Armed Forces at the level they believe we should act at.

One of the operations that has had the greatest impact on my people, on the people of the Navy, is when we were in Operation Sofia, and the helplessness of having 250 or 300 people in the water who don't know how to swim, who are going to drown and you with an RHIB [semi-rigid boat] or with two RHIBS, where you can put 10 or 20, take them out of the water and put them in the RHIB, and you have to choose between one or the other, knowing that by the time you're going and coming back, the one you're going to pick up is no longer there. That's very hard. That's very hard. And there are people who, I've had conversations with people who have been in this operation and come in, psychologically they have been affected. I mean, but it's the only solution. Let no one see this as... No, it can't be done. No, no, that's not what we're here for."

What AJEMA said is the response that should be expected from a Navy commander. Political decisions regarding the missions our Armed Forces carry out are not made by the military, but by politicians. Furthermore, international maritime law requires the rescue of people in danger on the high seas, a duty that binds both military and civilian vessels. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states the following in Article 98:

"Duty to render assistance

1. Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without serious danger to the ship, the crew or the passengers:

(a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost;

(b) to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him;

(c) after a collision, to render assistance to the other ship, its crew and its passengers and, where possible, to inform the other ship of the name of his own ship, its port of registry and the nearest port at which it will call.

2. Every coastal State shall promote the establishment, operation and maintenance of an adequate and effective search and rescue service regarding safety on and over the sea and, where circumstances so require, by way of mutual regional arrangements cooperate with neighbouring States for this purpose.".

Regarding illegal immigration, the duty to combat illegal human trafficking falls primarily on governments, which are the ones that must take measures to ensure that thousands of people do not find themselves in the tragic situation faced by many human beings who frequently die in their attempt to reach our shores. What a government should do is make decisions that punish this illegal trafficking and discourage it, but our government is doing just the opposite: encouraging it with an irresponsible immigration policy that creates a pull effect among the illegal human trafficking mafias.

Obviously, the government should be held accountable for this, not the Navy. In democratic countries, the Armed Forces carry out the missions assigned to them by the political power, within the framework of current legislation and with respect for international treaties and fundamental rights.

Finally, I recommend that before commenting on a headline published by the Efe news agency, you verify whether the information is true. That agency already has too many precedents for manipulation to continue to simply trust the things it publishes.

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Photo: Armada Española.