The group known as the Catalan CNI, created to promote actions that would achieve the independence of Catalonia, is deadlocked. And hence the investigation opened for five years in the National High Court leads to the same place: the shelving. In all this time, the investigators have not been able to gather sufficient evidence to demonstrate that this organization, made up of people of different kinds, has taken clearly illegal steps and thus be able to advance in the legal case.
The affair started at the end of 2017, at a time when the unilateral declaration of independence (DUI) had failed. The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont had settled in Waterloo so as not to end up in prison like his fellow Govern. The 155 had blown up all his plans. But the fight to achieve the split of Catalonia from the rest of Spain was not over. The underground battle was still brewing, the secessionist machinery had not stopped and several groups, connected in one way or another with each other, were still at full capacity.
In this scenario, the so-called Catalan CNI was born, which, supported by members of the CDR or even by people close to the former president —as stated in the judicial summary to which La Vanguardia has had access—, sought a clash with the Spanish State to achieve your plans.
Entrepreneurs, mossos d'esquadra, police officers, firefighters or computer scientists were part of this group that, on the one hand, would have supported protest actions within Catalonia and, on the other hand, would have helped promote the Council of the Catalan Republic. What they did not know, although they did suspect it, is that the Civil Guard had them fully monitored with SILC, a spyware similar to Pegasus. The National Court launched an investigation in December 2017 into movements it considered subversive within Catalonia. The agents detected a group that called itself "Catalan CNI" and from there another called the Technical Resistance Team (ERT) appeared that sought to promote actions to force the independence of Catalonia.
Five years later, the cause is still open although deflated: at a standstill. Sources of the investigation acknowledge to this newspaper that after the procés that embryo of the management structure of a group was created that they themselves called the Catalan CNI to give it more impact, although it had nothing to do with Cesicat (Catalonia Information Security Center) or the CNI Catalunya (a Twitter profile). According to the investigation, this organization was made up of people from different sectors of Catalan society who wanted to promote activities towards independence. In addition, according to the researchers, they formed a think tank in which they debated and promoted new ways to achieve their goals.
However, the current situation has nothing to do with what it was then and these sources explain that their activity is on "stand by" and that is why the judicial investigation has been paralyzed. An example they give is that this equipment was designed, among other things, to revitalize the street and now it is very stopped, so at this time it makes no sense to continue with the investigation. The case of the ERT is different, whose members were arrested in September 2019 before the accusation that they were preparing violent actions, such as the assault on Parliament and for which they have been accused of terrorism while awaiting trial.
At the height of the process, authorized by the judge, the Civil Guard, in what they considered a serious scenario, infected their phones to enter the depths of their mobile terminals, conversations or emails. They were followed up, all their calls were listened to. The investigators decided to intervene against the members of the so-called ERT days before the sentence for the procés was known and in the face of the foreseeable escalation of violence that was to come.
The investigation into the Catalan CNI began at the end of 2017 but it has not been until now that the details of the cause of this organization have been known, with close contacts with various pro-independence leaders. According to the summary in which they have been investigated, and to which La Vanguardia has had access, the Civil Guard points to businessman Ramir de Porrata as one of its top leaders. His conversations with the former director of the office of Torra and Puigdemont, with the secretary of Antoni Comin in Waterloo, or with some leaders of Junts to promote the Consell de la República and promote independence are some of the fragments that were analyzed in 2019.
In one of its reports, the Civil Guard highlights that “the Catalan CNI would plan and direct subversive and violent actions (such as the assault on Parliament), not only through the CDR, but from the coordination of various groups and entities, with the seriousness that some of them are public officials and even belong to the Security Forces and Bodies. And he adds: “the most serious thing, that said entity could be directed directly or indirectly by a mosso d'Esquadra of the Information Service, with possible links with the Catalan administration (take into account the meetings of President Quim Torra with the CDR).
The question that arises is whether violent actions were really promoted or was it a kind of lobby to support the independence of Catalonia. The agents focus on the talks that were held in three parties to, for example, boycott "from non-violence" the Council of Ministers that was going to be organized in Barcelona on December 21, 2018.
In conversations between members of the Catalan CNI and pro-independence leaders, the actions that the CDR had planned for that day were explained to them, through the so-called Shields for the Republic. According to what was reported then, the plan was to act without violence but to ensure that the ministers had to enter and leave the meeting by helicopter. "It would be a profound humiliation for the State", they trusted. The objective was to show that the Spanish State did not control the Catalan territory.
But they insisted that it should be a "slow and massive march, without violence", to prevent the Mossos d'Esquadra from charging the protesters. Their plan was to act intelligently and not allow the image of violence to be given because, as they saw it, "the State is interested in borrokizing Catalonia and projecting an image of violence of independence".
