Guardia Civil officer says he kept Ceuta fence gate open to prevent deaths

Conflicting accounts at the fence

On Monday, 26 October 2026, Judge María Tardón of the Audiencia Nacional heard two commanders as witnesses in her investigation into the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta from Morocco on 30 and 31 July. The witnesses were Lorenzo Juan Fages Cortés, a National Police inspector chief, and a lieutenant colonel who heads operations for the Guardia Civil in Ceuta. Their accounts diverge over the morning of 30 July, when the crowd began pressing toward the border. According to legal sources who attended the hearing, the police inspector wanted the fence gate closed, while the Guardia Civil officer refused. He said the gate is always open and that he feared a human crush or people jumping into the water and drowning.

Sources differ on the size of the entry. La Vanguardia puts it at more than 80,000 people, while El Periódico cites more than 70,000, and the judge is still reconstructing events from records.

Chain of command and the government delegate

The lieutenant colonel told the judge that he made the decision on his own initiative, without orders from his superiors or from the government delegation. He also said that the delegate, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, who has since resigned, gave him no instructions during the entry. He had kept the delegate informed of events while taking the operational decisions himself. The judge accepts that extraordinary measures were requested in meetings between senior officials of the Ceuta government and the delegation in the days before the entry.

Six Moroccan vessels and the police account

Both commanders acknowledged that several Moroccan boats were off Ceuta the night before the entry. The Guardia Civil officer counted six: two interceptors, two patrol boats and two small boats. He understood them as reinforcement for security and passed that view to the delegate. The judge is examining whether the boats were present without authorization and whether their purpose was the opposite of helping. The police inspector told the court that Moroccan agents, some in uniform and some in plain clothes, gestured to let people advance toward Ceuta during the entry. He said he faced the entry without prior warning or an extraordinary deployment, although resources had been requested, and that the police protocol was not activated.

Next steps in the inquiry

The judge has summoned three Ceuta government councillors for Tuesday, 27 October: Alberto Ramón Gaitán Rodríguez, Nabila Benzina Pavón and Alejandro Ramírez Magaña. Three security agents are to testify on Wednesday, 28 October. The court has also requested video footage from cameras, drones and border control systems from 30 July, along with emails and draft statements tied to meetings held on 27, 28 and 30 July 2026. A CNI intelligence report, cited by El Periódico, said Moroccan authorities knew in detail of social media calls for a mass entry into Ceuta. No one has yet been formally charged in the case, although popular accusations are seeking to identify senior political officials.

On the TVE programme La Revuelta on the previous Thursday, 22 October, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the crisis.

“Without any doubt we could have managed it better.”