Algeria and the things that pro-Russian propaganda networks in Spain don't tell you

Pro-Russian propaganda networks are accustomed to generating propaganda aimed at fans of the crudest nonsense.

The “rise of Vox” is causing concern at the Royal Palace in Morocco, as indicated in its semi-official newspaper
The anti-Western propaganda that is poisoning a segment of the right-wing

A hoax from a pro-Russian channel about Vox, Morocco and Algeria

In recent days, pro-Russian propaganda networks in Spain have attacked the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, for publishing a message denouncing the arrival of illegal immigrants from Algeria to the Spanish city of Cartagena. One of the best-known pro-Russian propaganda channels in Spain, "Herqles", which I already discussed here a few months ago (pointing out its messages whitewashing Russia and Moscow's allied dictatorships like Iran, communist China, and North Korea), published an absurd hoax accusing Vox of having ties to Morocco (something ridiculous, since it is one of the Spanish parties most hostile to Morocco), as a media outlet very close to the Moroccan royal family recently pointed out).

Is Algeria a “natural ally of Spain”?

In his attack on Vox, "Herqles" claims that Algeria is "a natural ally of Spain against Rabat." This would be laughable were it not for certain facts I'm about to mention. Based on this falsehood, pro-Russian propaganda networks in Spain have launched attacks against Abascal and Vox, portraying them as allies of Morocco. Obviously, anyone can like Vox more or less, and it's legitimate to criticize a party or politician, but what isn't legitimate is lying and deceiving people with falsehoods like that. To begin with, we must address the absurd notion that the enemies of our enemies are our friends. Morocco is the main strategic threat to Spain, but that doesn't mean Algeria is our ally. In fact, it has acted with the same hostility as Morocco toward Spain on numerous occasions.

Algeria has used illegal immigration as a tool of pressure against Spain

To begin with the most recent development, Algeria has used illegal immigration as a tool to exert pressure against Spain, just as Morocco does. If the magnitude of these migratory pressures is less in the Algerian case, it is simply because Algeria is farther from Spanish territory than Morocco. If pro-Russian networks align themselves with Algeria, it is simply because that country is an ally of Russia and it also maintains important ties with communist China, with Iran, with Belarus and even with North Korea, a country with which the Algerian regime has maintained a strategic alliance since 2026.

A dictatorship that supported the Polisario Front in its fight against Spain

To understand Algeria's alignment with Putin's dictatorship and its allied dictatorships, one need only review the history of the North African country. Following Algeria's independence in 1962, the National Liberation Front (FLN) seized power and established a one-party regime. The FLN is a socialist and nationalist party, in line with other similar parties that came to power in Arab countries at that time. The FLN transformed Algeria into one of the Soviet Union's main allies in North Africa, along with Egypt, then governed by another socialist and nationalist, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Algeria's status as an ally of Moscow during the Cold War made this North African country a direct geopolitical rival of Spain. In 1975, Algeria became the Polisario Front's main supporter in its terrorist offensive to achieve the independence of Spanish Sahara, an offensive in which the Polisario murdered 289 Spanish citizens, many of them Canary Island fishermen. Algeria aimed to turn Spanish Sahara into an allied state, as the Polisario shared the socialist ideology of the Algerian dictatorship.

Algeria served as a refuge for far-left Spanish terrorist groups

Algeria was also for years a sanctuary for Spanish far-left terrorism. ETA, GRAPO, FRAP, and MPAIAC terrorists found refuge in Algeria. Let us remember that ETA murdered 853 people, including 22 children and babies, and that the MPAIAC was responsible for the biggest air disaster in history, the one at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife on March 27, 1977, with 583 dead, after two planes collided amid the chaos caused by a bomb threat from that terrorist group.

Algeria provided training to ETA terrorists to destabilize Spain

In 1995, a former ETA member, Mario Onaindía, revealed that in the 1970s Algeria provided military training to members of that terrorist organization, with the aim of destabilizing Spain and seizing Western Sahara. On December 29, 1976, the Cifra Agency reported that 100 ETA terrorists were receiving training in Algiers. In 1981, Claire Sterling, a US expert on terrorist networks, pointed out that the USSR, Cuba, and Algeria provided refuge and support to the terrorist group ETA. In the case of the North African country, this support began in 1968, when ETA terrorists moved from Cuban training camps to Algerian camps, along with members of other far-left criminal groups from other countries.

En 2004 las Fuerzas de Seguridad españolas revelaron que Argelia proporcionó adiestramiento a terroristas de ETApm entre 1976 y 1980. El primer curso de adiestramiento se celebró en enero de 1976 cerca de Souma y su duración fue de 45 días. Miembros de la policía argelina participaron como adiestradores de los terroristas de ETApm. Significativamente, la información de inteligencia revelada entonces señaló que cuando Argelia decidió cancelar ese adiestramiento, la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina (OLP) ofreció a ETApm sus campos en el Líbano, mientras la otra facción de ETA, ETAm, recibía adiestramiento de los terroristas palestinos del FPLP en Yemen del Sur.

An authoritarian regime where Christians suffer very high levels of persecution

The FLN's one-party system in Algeria came to an end in 1989, following a popular uprising that erupted the previous year. European communist dictatorships were collapsing, and the FLN was thus losing its main support. However, the dream of liberalization was short-lived: the FLN has remained in power in Algeria ever since, without interruption, in a dictatorship with a democratic facade propped up by the army, which is very loyal to the FLN. The Economist's Democracy Index currently ranks Algeria as an authoritarian regime, placing it 110th out of 167 countries (Morocco is ranked 91st as a hybrid regime, the first step towards becoming a dictatorship).

Currently, both Morocco and Algeria are on the list of 50 countries where Christians are victims of persecution, an annual list published by the NGO Open Doors. Algeria ranks 20th and Morocco 23rd, both in the range encompassing countries where the persecution of Christians reaches very high levels. Pro-Russian propaganda networks never mention this because in other dictatorships allied with Russia, such as North Korea (ranked 1st) and Iran (10th), this persecution reaches extreme levels. Communist China is on the list at number 17 and Cuba at number 24.