Catalonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a memorandum to the international diplomatic corps to inform them about the Operation Catalonia. Under the title, "Spain's Interior Ministry used the Police to smear Pro-Independence Party officials in Catalonia and the Spanish Opposition", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to give an account of the ideological persecution by the Spanish Government.
"New evidence of ideological and political persecution in Spain has come to light thanks to the investigative journalism carried out for a documentary entitled, Spain - The State's Secret Cesspit," the memorandum starts, and which continues to explain that the documentary could be seen on Catalan, Balearic Islands and Basque television, but not on national Spanish television. Next, it explains how the documentary, which lasts an hour, details how Spain's Interior Ministry took advantage of the Spanish police sectors and some mainstream media to smear politicians from Catalonia's pro-independence movement, and even from Spanish opposition parties, such as Podemos.
It explains that everything started to come to light after recordings of telephone calls were made public between the then Interior Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the then Director of Catalonia's Anti-Fraud Unit, Daniel de Alfonso. "The dozens of calls detailed a conspiracy that went on between 2011 and 2014 to fabricate stories against pro-independence Catalan politicians and leak them to the press in an attempt to discredit those involved with Catalonia's independence vote," states the report.
The memorandum indicates that, "as shown in the documentary ... Fernández Díaz refused to resign, stating that Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, was aware of everything he had done", and he remained as minister until the next Spanish elections. It also states that the documentary was aired on the same day that the Spanish Court of Auditors announced it would proceed with enforcing the sentence of a 5m euro fine from a politically motivated court case brought against former Catalan President, Artur Mas, as one of the people responsible for the 9 November 2014 Catalan independence 'consultation'.
Finally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insists that there is not a "Catalan problem", but rather that Spain "has a serious problem with its authoritarian past". The memorandum concludes by announcing that "the Catalan government is determined to hold an independence referendum on 1 October ... giving voice to the 68% of Catalonia's citizens that last polls show will vote about their politcal future." The link to watch the documentary is available here: