• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Spain: CESID scandal

Spain: CESID scandal

01 July 1995

The Spanish vice-President and former Minister of Defence, Narcis Serra, and the Minister of Defence, Julian Garcia Vargas, have resigned from their posts after accepting responsibility for the illegal telephone tapping scandal in which the CESID (Secret Service) eavesdropped on well-known personalities. Their resignations were accepted and Gustavo Suarez Pertierra - a former associate of Serra - was named Minister of Defence. The new Defence Minister accepted the resignation of the CESID director, General Emilio Alonso Manglano, and announced a new statute for the Secret Services: an assistant director will check the decisions taken by the general director. The new director general has been named as Major General Felix Miranda Robledo; he is 61 and it is likely that he will resign soon. Jesus del Olmo, a close collaborator of Garcia Vargos who was recently promoted to Brigadier General, was named as Assistant Director. It seems that a number of generals, formerly linked to the Security Services, declined to take charge of CESID. As a result of accusations, which Manglano made against Colonel Juan Alberto Perote, former head of Secret Service Special Operations, that alleged that he was responsible for leaking the illegally recorded telephone conversations the latter was detained and imprisoned on June 21. However, three weeks later a military judge exonerated Perote of one of the two charges and modified the order to imprison him to house arrest. He also accused Manglano of the investigated crimes.