CNI Spanish secret service. A kings business? Part 5

We have repeatedly said that the king has a preference for the PSOE. This may sound odd taking into account PSOE´s history and its republican tradition. But it is that very same tradition of republicanism and the long history of betrayals, coups d´etat, murders and intrigue that the PSOE has that makes this party the King´s favourite.

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The king has had no fears about the conservative party (PP) same as he did not fear Adolfo Suárez party (UCD) so he has allowed himself to act as a despotic king (it is in his genes) imposing appointments in the defense minister or in the secret service (among many other things). He knows that usually PP leaders and officials are less likely to protest or to air his royal sins.

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On the other hand Juan Carlos does fear PSOE a lot, he specially did in the early years of our very deficient democracy.

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Between 1975 and 1982 he contemplated how the conjunction of a savage terrorsit activity, a raging economic crisis, an increase upsetting in the military, and the annoying demands of nationalistic and separatist parties, were undermining the control of circumstances that an increasingly weaker Adolfo Suárez Administration had.

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All these things were endangering the success of the political process Spain was undergoing, and worst of all it was putting at risk his king business. The king knew that the PSOE was anxious to govern the country before things would get any worse. Adolfo Suárez was forced to resign and when he wanted to change his decision (during the theatrical coup d´etat in february 1981 Suárez tried to undo his resignation and he was not allowed by someone) he was stopped and Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo (a good manager but with no charisma) managed the months before PSOE overwhelming triumph in the 1982 elections.

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Keep your friends close to you and your enemies even closer the saying goes. With PSOE in office the king did all it was in his royal hand to please the newcomers in every aspect being always well awared of the fact that PSOE was not as easy to manipulate as other more liberal or conservative parties. During the 14 years that Felipe gonzález was in office the King forged a real tight alliance with the party apparatus and the government and same as the PSOE leaders did he also became a really wealthy man.

During these years (1982-1996) PSOE placed its members and sympathizers by thousands in the public administrations, public companies, the secret services, the police, and shamelessly benefited those entrepreneurs and business men that where on the PSOE side. Felipe González helped media giant PRISA that was managed by Mr. Jesús de Polanco (who became rich during Franco regime by selling text books for school children) by granting this company licences for radio stations and tv channels and by laminating those media that were not so supportive with the PSOE.

But lets go back to the kings business. Jesús Cacho a well reputed journalist says in his book "El negocio de la libertad" (The freedom business):

"...One of the earliest forms known was oil, oil commissions coming from the oil imports Spain needed to meet its energy needs. As soon as Juan Carlos I occupied the throne after the death of the dictator, Manuel Prado y Colón de Carvajal, was devoted to send several royal letters to many reigning monarchs, especially the Arab world, asking for money on behalf of the King of Spain".
There is documentary evidence of a letter signed by Juan Carlos I and addressed to the Shah of Persia, on July 4, 1977, where the monarch following a description of the political situation said: "I take the liberty, with all respect, to subject to your generous consideration the possibility of granting 10 million dollars as your personal contribution to strengthening the Spanish monarchy. "

Manuel Prado y Colón de Carvajal who recently died in 2009 was a close friend of king Juan Carlos, he was appointed as senator in 1977 (the King used to have a quota of senators he could freely appoint), was also President of Iberia Airlines when this company was public and the list goes on and on (Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz Order, France´s Legion of Honor...).

With respect to the book we have quoted above Mr Prado y Colón de Carvajal said about journalist Jesús Cacho:

"We must get rid of what you represent"

Such a gentleman!

Prado y Colón de Carvajal was imprisoned on April 26, 2004 in the Seville prison serving a sentence of two years for the "Wardbase" case. For humanitarian reasons he was awarded the second grade prison two months later.

As head of "Grand Tibidabo", he was convicted in 2008 for misappropriation: three months' imprisonment by the High Court.

The Supreme Court had already sentenced him to one year in prison for misappropriation in September 2007 by a diversion of money from Grupo Torras.

The royal scandals finally reached France, where during the preliminary investigation about Elf (2003) for misappropriation, its former chairman Le Floch-Prigent said about buying ERTOIL:

"...having delivered 55 million francs in Spain to many politicians, in particularly those close to Felipe Gonzalez and King Juan Carlos environment ", with who Le Floch-Prigent claimed to have met in multiple occasions.

According to Jose Garcia Abad, author of the book "la Soledad del Rey"(The Solitude of the King):

"Felipe Gonzalez turned a blind eye to the royal businesses and trips and even got to make some important negotiation for the benefit of the royal family: he sent his righ-hand man, Julio Feo , to negotiate with the Greek government about the return of the assets of the family of Mrs. Sophia, which had been confiscated when King Constantine was deposed"

The list is endless and all the royal family has been benefited with important positions and lucrative businesses: daughters, son, sons in law, daughter in law.

Then we could list the list of lets call them venial sins like promoting brands in the annual yacht race named after him, subliminal advertising and so on.

How much money does the king have?
The cost item of the General State Budget for the expenses of the royal family by law is not subject to review by the Court of Auditors. The 1978 Constitution allows the monarch to dispose of it without further explanation. In 1980 the government assigned 200 million pesetas (1,2 million euros of that time would be like 6 to 8 million currently). Until then, the king just collected a salary of captain general. Currently the General State Budget assigns some 7.78 million euros for the king and his family.
Due to the opacity of the royal house, the fortune of the king is difficult to quantify. Forbes Magazine (April 2003) includes Juan Carlos I in the sixth place among Europe´s monarchs and with a fortune of 1,790 million euros the king is the 134th among the richest in the world.

The advent of the socialist party was a blessing for the King´s financials and his pro-PSOE attitude has paid well off. But being King and serving so much is a non stop job and the king must look after his family and his wealth and to do so he needs to keep all mouths shut and it is of key importance to keep the secret services under the control of trustworthy people that will not leak information whatsoever.

In this context when Aznar´s PP won the general elections in 1996 it was of utmost importance for both the King and the PSOE to keep the secret service under the "right" control, thus both the minister of defense and the director of the CNI were imposed to the new President José María Aznar.

By doing so the PSOE could be sure that all the information regarding the corruption and the crimes of state would be under lock and the King could nothing but agree. The saying goes: "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" and it seems to have worked out fine for this singular alliance.

Now you can believe in Santa Claus and the eastern bunny or in the Reyes Magos (the three wise men that bring presents in the night of january 5th to children in the Spanish speaking world) if that makes you happy, same as you can go on thinking as most people do that the King of Spain is a goody fellow, kindhearted and always friendly. Maybe he is like that sometimes, we are all humans, specially with his family but he is also a powerful individual with a huge interest in keeping his way of life.

End of the series.

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CNI Spanish secret service. A kings business? Part 4

The evening of the 23rd February 1981 the Spanish Parliament was voting on second round the Adolfo Suárez successor appointment to the Presidency of the Government.

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Suárez had resigned a few days before, and announced such decission with a really serious expression on the television. Suárez had cracked down under the pressure of the economic crisis, the demands from the PSOE, the urge from the always selfish nationalistic parties, the pressure from his own party that was self collapsing, the demands and fears from some of the military establishment, and the continuous ETA terrorists murders that had the Armed Forces about to explode in wrath.

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Felipe González was really in a hurry to access to power because he also knew from various sources (CIA probably included) that something could happen in those days of the eary 80´s. Besides he did not precisely threw flowers at Mr. Suárez (while Suárez was tackling the terrorist problem the PSOE opposition was being ruthless) and he had his share in the collapse of Adolfo Suárez´s government as we have explained before.

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He knew that with the Suárez party (UCD) dissolving and the increasing social unrest he was going to win the next elections (as he did in 1982) easily.

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For some elements a marxist in Moncloa was something unbearable and for some others the PSOE was a better alternative than the feared Communist Party (PCE) thus they thought that winning over Mr. González for the cause of a government of national unity with ministers from different ideologies could be somehow a good thing to do.

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The idea was not really bad at all in the sense that it would have been a good way for the new PSOE to win experience and for those reluctant to see a marxist as President it would have been a way to prove them that González could change.

(And, oh boy did he chain!! Between 1982 to 1986 he held three different positions with respect of the adhesion of Spain to the NATO: First he was completely against, then he was not too convinced and finally he ended begging all Spaniards to vote yes in the referendum to that effect)

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In February 1981 a group of over a dozen Guardias Civiles broke into the Parliament carrying weapons and told the congressmen that they were there to hold everyone inside until the "competent authority" would show up. Meanwhile that very same night of february 23rd 1981, in Valencia, general Milans del Bosch took his tanks for a walk (stopping in each and every traffic light by the way) down the streets of Valencia. One of the biggest masquerades in Spain´s History was on stage.

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The first minutes of the assault were broadcasted life so everyone in Spain could witness what was going on in the congress. After some few hours of confusion King Juan Carlos in his Capitan General uniform addressed a speech to the citizenship condemning the coup d´etat attempt and defending the constitutional legitimacy.

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It was very celebrated the courage of the King as well as the fact always highlight by the brown nosers courtiers that the King was wearing his pajamas under the uniform...a funny touch of drama to stress that the King was by no means expecting such thing to happen.

At 5 am in the morning of the 24th Milans del Bosch withdrew his tank parade and by noon February 24th the coup was completely deactivated.

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Let me add it was completely deactivated from the very beginning and it was nothing but a performance orchestrated..., ok ok lets say maybe orchestrated, by the secret service, the King and the socialist party.

Let´s go back some days before the 23rd of February 1981.

Suárez made his resignation public on the 29th of January. On the 3rd of february the minister of Defense, Mr. Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún appointed General Alfonso Armada as number two in the military rank. This appointment was made not only against all Suárez recommendations but without his knowledge. Mr. Sahagún signed the appointment after being pressured by King Juan Carlos.

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Alfonso Armada ended up in jail on the charges of being one of the leaders of the coup d´etat that took place some weeks after being appointed by a minister whose boss had resigned.

Luis Herrero a well known Spanish Journalist that has also been EU MP tells in his book "Los que le llamábamos Adolfo" (Those of us who called him Adolfo):

that on February 3, 1981, Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún, then Minister of Defense, "signed the ministerial order appointing Alfonso Armada as deputy commander in chief of the Army." "It was the appointment Adolfo had tried to avoid at all costs and whose veto had cost him several formidable fights with the King in the past" he says.

He adds that with Suarez and ministers resigned the monarch had bridged the President and had demanded the defense minister to sign the appointment. The appointment prompted an angry response from Suárez and he called the minister and told him "you have just signed the authorization that will allow a coupe in Spain and when you see Armada leading the whole thing you will know it was all your fault"

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According to this the King wanted at any cost that his close friend general Alfonso Armada would be appoited deputy commander in chief and he took advantage of Suárez´s situation to force the defense minister to do something. Sounds so "Borbón" to me, it reminds me of Alfonso XIII playing war games back in the 1920s before General Primo de Rivera lead his "soft" coup d´etat.

Because let us be logical and apply the common sense. If a coup is going to take place and you think that the Head of State is not going to support it or back you up, then the first thing you do is to capture the King himself (sounds like chess but its basic common sense) and not allow him to put on his uniform under his pajama in such a hurry...

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But the majority of the Spanish people took the bate and believed that the night of the 23rd the King saved the democracy from his comfortable living room in the Zarzuela Palace.

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Whoever pretends me to buy that the leaders of the coup were all complete idiots that did not think of the possibility that maybe if they did not take the royal premises and the King himself His Majesty would have something to say, will make me laugh.

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Alfonso Armada had been number two in the "Casa Real" as Secretary General of the Royal House he was also a support teacher for Juan Carlos in the different military academies that he attended in his younger years, and on top of that the King took advantage of a politically weak Suárez to appoint Armada to a key position in the military shortly before the big masquerade began.

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Who on earth has the guts to come and tell that the King knew nothing about the whole thing and that he was completely off his guard the very day the new President of Government was to be elected??

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Let us venture a hypothesis, only a hypothesis:

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In fear of a real and more hardliner coup d´etat the secret services needed some one loyal to the king like Alfonso Armada in a high position in the military in order to guarantee the success of the masquerade.

If other elements in the military saw that a close friend of the king was appointed contrary to the President Suárez opinion (Suárez came from the Franco Regime and was perceived as a traitor among some elements) they would be more likely to join this remote controlled coup d´etat thus they would come under arrest and be neutralized. Most of the took the bait

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Probably king Juan Carlos told Armada that the idea was to perform a "soft" coup that would bring a government of national unity that would include ministers from all the different ideologies. A government presided by Armada with Felipe González (PSOE) as vicepresident.

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Armada would have been said that this coup was the best for Spain and after being appointed deputy chief of command with the king´s assistance he would have no doubt that it was something that would really come to term.

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The elements deployed in the congress were waiting for some authority (Armada) and that authority was probably waiting for the king to announce that a salvation unitarian government was on its way. So there was no reason to keep neutralize the king since the elements in the coup were simply waiting for him to "bless" the whole enchilada...

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Alfonso Armada, Milans del Bosch, Antonio Tejero and the rest of the military that were prosecuted for this coup attempt were shocked the night of the 23rd when they found out that the king instead of backing them up, as they expected after Armada was designated deputy commander in chief with the king´s help, was comdemning their acts on the television.

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As I said its only an hypothesis but it does really make more, much more, sense than that of a coup d´etat that would simply had forgotten to take care of the king...

What it is sure is that the hypothesis of a masquerade is the most borbonic of the two, but no one knows.

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King Juan Carlos is not a very intelligent person, his wife Queen Sofia is in my believe far more intelligent than him but Juan Carlos has an instinctive intelligence to cling to power, it is almost like a genetic intelligence coming from the evolution of the Borbon dinasty. The king is not an avid reader or a person fond of fine arts, he enjoys fast cars and sailing and he does not want his family to end up like his grandfather´s family back in 1931 and if that ever occurs he has made sure that he will be really well off in a golden exile unlike "grandpa" did.

end of part 4

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