Retired commissioner Germán Rodríguez Castiñeira, who was head of the Police’s anti-terrorism fight, confirmed Tuesday before the National Court that he had received the request to search the background of the 69 Podemos deputies from the December elections. 2015 and refused to do so. Castiñeira declared himself under investigation in the dirty war case against Podemos before the Central Court of Instruction number 5, presided over by Santiago Pedraz.
At the time of the events, Castiñeira was head of the Madrid Provincial Information Brigade. One of the elements supporting the Podemos complaint at the origin of the case is a WhatsApp conversation intercepted by the former number two of the Ministry of the Interior with the PP Francisco Martínez. During this conversation, he speaks with a commander of the General Information Commission, Enrique García Castaño, to request compromising information about the new Podemos deputies. García Castaño claims to have asked the person appearing today before Judge Pedraz, Germán Castiñeira, to research this data.
Over time, Castiñeira would rise and the PP would put him at the head of the General Information Commission. This Tuesday he said he responded to García Castaño’s request by refusing, angrily and alluding to the fact that it was “suicide” because, among other things, the monitoring of information in the bases police data leaves a trace. Faced with this angry response, again according to Castiñeira’s version, García Castaño told him that it was “a joke”. Castiñeira answered questions from the prosecutor, Vicente González Mota, and his lawyer.
This second commissioner, Enrique García Castaño, known in the police as “El Gordo”, will not be able to testify due to his delicate state of health, after having suffered a serious cardiovascular accident. His prosecution in the Kitchen case was dropped for the same reason.
On January 30, 2016, talks between the PSOE and Podemos for the formation of a government were in their early stages. The results of the previous December 20 general election held out the possibility that a deal between the two parties would overthrow the People’s Party. The interim Interior Ministry has strained the cogs of its political brigade to be able to offer negative information about Podemos to the relevant media. The Secretary of State for Security then wrote to Gordo: “Those from Podemos who had a criminal record, were you able to confirm anything? Commissioner Enrique García Castaño responds that “nothing”. “Cagüenlaputa!” » exclaims Francisco Martínez.
The conversation appears in WhatsApp messages intercepted by Martínez in 2020, as part of the investigation into parapolice espionage by Luis Bárcenas with reserved funds. The main defendant, Francisco Martínez, requested that the file be archived because he considers it a crime to use his messages, obtained in the Kitchen case, in the Pedraz investigation, after judge Manuel García Castellón suspended his access to the same ones. “It would be very interesting to know… And if they were involved in national files, files of violent extremism, etc…”, wrote the number two of the Interior to the police officer.
“Josetxu Arrieta was the only one who belonged to ETA,” the commissioner explains to the politician. García Castaño explains some photos he had previously sent to Martínez: “[Es] the last one that appears in the photos I sent you, the Moors with those names, nothing. The Secretary of State for Security reveals his disappointment: “I say that if the others are clean… no street violence, anarchists, etc.??? » The commissioner replies: “I’ll think about it again, but I don’t think so. »
