{"id":41849,"date":"2020-04-19T18:40:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T16:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=41849"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:16:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:16:35","slug":"the-civil-guard-says-it-works-to-minimize-the-criticism-to-the-spanish-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/04\/19\/the-civil-guard-says-it-works-to-minimize-the-criticism-to-the-spanish-government\/","title":{"rendered":"The Civil Guard says it works to \u00abminimize\u00bb the criticism to the Spanish Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The attacks on freedom of speech from the Spanish Government have today had their most astonishing extreme during a press conference held in La Moncloa.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/04\/17\/11-rights-that-the-spanish-gov-illegally-attacks-using-the-epidemic-as-an-excuse\/\">11 rights that the Spanish Gov. illegally attacks using the epidemic as an excuse<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/03\/13\/the-example-of-poland-vs-the-coronavirus-what-the-spanish-gov-should-have-done-and-did-not\/\">The example of Poland vs the coronavirus: what the Spanish Gov should have done and did not<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><big>An attempt by the general to uncover the scandalous orders of the Government?<\/big><\/p>\n<p>In this press conference, the Chief of the General Staff of the Civil Guard, General Jos\u00e9 Manuel Santiago, has recognized that <strong>this Police corp works to \"minimize this climate contrary to crisis management by the Government.\"<\/strong> You can see the video here (I have added English subtitles):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7HtNLZ5cIHw?rel=0&hl=es&cc_lang_pref=en&cc_load_policy=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Interior Minister, <strong>Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has qualified this statement about the criticism of the Government, stating that \"it was a lapse.\"<\/strong> Rather, General Santiago's words - possibly spoken to uncover the scandalous orders received from the Government - were so clear and revealing that they have already caused <strong>a political and media earthquake in Spain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><big>The culmination of several weeks of attacks on freedom of speech<\/big><\/p>\n<p>General Santiago's statement is not something isolated. At the end of March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/03\/28\/un-periodista-denuncia-presiones-desde-el-psoe-para-que-no-contemos-la-catastrofe-sanitaria\/\">a journalist denounced pressure from the Socialist Party \"so that we do not report the health catastrophe.\"<\/a> On April 6 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/04\/07\/este-anuncio-de-marlaska-sobre-redes-sociales-deberia-costarle-otro-juicio-mas-al-gobierno\/\">the Interior Minister announced that he is \"monitoring\" social networks<\/a>, describing as \"criminal\" the dissemination of \"absolutely false and biased news\", despite the fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.libertaddigital.com\/ciencia-tecnologia\/salud\/2020-04-16\/sanidad-aferra-contabilidad-maquillada-aun-asi-suben-muertos-cornavirus-551-1276656013\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Government has been providing false figures of deaths of coronavirus<\/a>, by excluding part of the deceased reported by some regional governments. Another government party, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/04\/06\/podemos-denuncia-criticas-al-gobierno-usando-un-tipo-penal-que-pidio-legalizar-hace-un-mes\/\">Podemos, has reported to the Prosecutor's Office an incredible story about a \"criminal organization\" whose crime would be to criticize the Government.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Four days ago, the Government-dependent Sociological Research Center (CIS) published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/04\/15\/el-cis-de-tezanos-prepara-el-terreno-para-una-censura-de-medios-y-de-redes-sociales\/\">a survey clearly aimed at generating an opinion favorable to censorship of the media and social networks<\/a> with the excuse of combating \"absolutely false and biased news\", a fact that has caused a scandal between Spanish journalism and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.es\/espana\/abci-oposicion-estalla-contra-tezanos-quieren-poner-bozal-libertad-expresion-202004160924_noticia.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criticism from the parliamentary opposition<\/a>. In addition, this Friday the State Prosecutor General's Office, led by the socialist Dolores Delgado (who was Minister of Justice of the S\u00e1nchez Government until January), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efe.com\/efe\/espana\/portada\/los-propagadores-de-bulos-pueden-enfrentarse-a-cinco-anos-carcel\/10010-4224394\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threatened those who spread \"hoaxes\" with up to 5 years in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><big>The Popular Party requests the \"urgent appearance\" of the Interior Minister<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Criticism of the opposition to General Santiago's statement has been strong. From the Popular Party (PP), their parliamentary spokesman, Cayetana \u00c1lvarez de Toledo, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cayetanaAT\/status\/1251855649308377089\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has described<\/a> this statement as follows: <strong><em>\"A dramatic test of the Government's ability to rot the institutions.\"<\/em><\/strong> On Marlaska's explanation, she commented: <em>\"The lapse of truth.\"<\/em> She has also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cayetanaAT\/status\/1251856210502004737\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">demanded<\/a> the \"urgent appearance\" of General Santiago, Minister Marlaska, the Secretary of State for Security and the Director General of the Civil Guard. Likewise, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/populares\/status\/1251867623870038020\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the PP has pointed out<\/a>: <em>\"If you give your opinion through the RRSS on the disastrous management of the government, you are interested in knowing that <strong>the S\u00e1nchez government has forced the CNI [National Intelligence Center] (Pablo Iglesias) to work, not to look for evidence, but to shut up and not be criticized.\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>Vox announces \"judicial actions\" against those who gave that order<\/big><\/p>\n<p>From the Vox party, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Santi_ABASCAL\/status\/1251863636735332354\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Santiago Abascal has launched a \"democratic alert\"<\/a>, warning: <em>\"This is, in fact, <strong>the beginning of a coup d'etat by the government itself, which orders the Armed Institute to violate the Constitution.\"<\/em><\/strong> The Vox leader added: <em>\"The State Security Forces are there to prosecute crimes and not to make the exercise of the opposition a crime or to minimize criticism of the government. A government, in this case, that with this illegal order has crossed all limits.\"<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vox_es\/status\/1251882660147933184\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vox has also announced<\/a> <strong><em>\"urgent judicial actions against those who have given those orders and against any official who abides by them<\/strong>, because they are clearly illegal in trying to outlaw and de facto outlaw opposition and criticism of the government.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>Ciudadanos ask for the appearance of the Interior Minister and General Santiago<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The Ciudadanos party (Cs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CiudadanosCs\/status\/1251885523096023040\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has also demanded<\/a> <em>\"the appearance of the Minister of the Interior and the Chief of Staff of the Civil Guard.\"<\/em> The deputy spokesman for Cs, Edmundo Bal, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BalEdmundo\/status\/1251879405380648967\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has described<\/a> the words of General Santiago as follows: <em>\"A very serious and very worrying statement.\"<\/em> Likewise, Joan Mesquida, former director general of the Civil Guard and currently a member of the Ciudadanos executive, who <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joanmesquida62\/status\/1251878262038462467\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has stated<\/a>: <em>\"I do not give credit to the General's words. Investigating criticism of government management is totally unacceptable. <strong>I would like to know who has given this clearly unconstitutional order and a misappropriation of public resources.\"<\/em><\/strong> Mesquida also added:<em> \"If it has been a lapse, it must be stopped immediately, and <strong>if he has received the order from some political authority, he must resign immediately.\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><big>The Civil Guard publishes an explanatory statement<\/big><\/p>\n<p>+ UPDATED 19:30h: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guardiacivil\/status\/1251920947688472584\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Civil Guard published a note a few minutes ago<\/a> son the statements of General Santiago: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\"The monitoring work carried out by the State Security Forces and Corps, and in which the Civil Guard participates, <strong>is exclusively aimed at detecting hoaxes and disinformation that generate a high level of stress and social alarm, especially on health issues.<\/strong> It is always done with scrupulous respect for the right to freedom of speech and criticism. <strong>The hoaxes that seek general social alarm are monitored, never freedom of speech.<\/strong> The Civil Guard is one of the main guarantors of freedom of speech.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is true that the Civil Guard is answering hoaxes that affect health. And that is very good. The problem is that <strong>the government and its related media are indiscriminately dismissing as \"hoaxes\" the opposition's criticism to the executive's action<\/strong>, and with that they are creating a perverse confusion and hindering the work of the Civil Guard. On the other hand, <strong>the statement made today by General Santiago was very clear, not a simple confusion of words.<\/strong> The scandal caused by that statement cannot be settled with a brief note on the Civil Guard's Twitter. This is very serious and must be investigated by the Justice.<\/p>\n<p><big>The Government says now that it wants to exclude the military and police from its press conferences.<\/big><\/p>\n<p>+ UPDATED 19:38h: After the political earthquake caused by the statement of General Santiago, the newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/elpais.com\/espana\/2020-04-19\/pp-y-cs-piden-la-comparecencia-de-marlaska-por-unas-declaraciones-de-la-guardia-civil-sobre-los-bulos.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">El Pa\u00eds, related to the Government, published a few minutes ago<\/a> that <strong>the executive <em>\"plans to restructure the press conferences after the Coronavirus Technical Committee and dispense with those responsible for the Forces Armed, the Police and the Civil Guard<\/strong> in their telematic appearance before the media in La Moncloa.\"<\/em> Are we in an attempt to prevent any other police or military commander from revealing illegal orders from the Government?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The attacks on freedom of speech from the Spanish Government have today had their most astonishing extreme during a press conference held in La Moncloa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11547,10398,10429],"tags":[3422,13823,11462,11111],"class_list":["post-41849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security-forces","category-spain","category-second","tag-fernando-grande-marlaska","tag-general-jose-manuel-santiago","tag-spain","tag-spanish-civil-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}